It was predictable that furor over Trump’s nomination of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General continues into this week. In fact it’s not going to stop unless he withdraws, Trump pulls the nomination or Gaetz gets voted down. Then again, since Gaetz has such a sleazy history, paying for sex with underage teen girls why should anyone be “Shocked! Shocked I Say” that Gaetz would be even mentioned for, much less nominated to be this nation’s top law enforcement Officer. Even amongst Republicans there is a lot of “Eeeeewwww!” going on. And it’s clear Gaetz will face a tough nomination fight. One huge factor is the way too long awaited House Ethics report. Every indication is it will bury Gaetz. GOP Senators know it and need cover to defy Trump. In fact one of them has firmly called on the House Ethics Committee to hand it over.
As this article from Reuters reports GOP Senator Markwayne Mullins of Oklahoma is bluntly saying ‘hand the thing over.’ Ok, so he’s hedging some on whether it’s just the Senators evaluating his nomination or the entire public gets to see what the House Ethics Committee has on Gaetz but Mullin has laid down his marker – hand the thing over:
Mullin told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Senate, which holds the authority to confirm or deny Trump’s nominations to high-level positions, needs to see the report.
“The Senate should have access to that,” Mullin said. “Should it be released to the public or not? That I guess will be part of the negotiations.”
Mullins isn’t the only Senator that feels that way. I won’t detail all that Gaetz has done to prevent that report from being released. Given his freak-show antics as a Congress Critter and general lack of qualifications for the job of AG it would be a tough sell to get him confirmed despite the GOP’s fear of Trump. But add in the whole ‘sex, drugs and rock & roll’ lifestyle Gaetz has led you have to wonder what the hell Trump was thinking. Hell, Gaetz was known to whip out his phone on the House Floor and show pictures (and one gathers worse) of him with ‘sweet young things’ – you already need Brain Bleach so I’ll leave that part at that. Gaetz has clearly been the most hated man in the House and if he sticks this nomination out he’ll get ‘Honorary Mention’ as Ted Cruz’s ‘partner’ for the title in the Senate.
I mention that even absent that Ethics investigation Gaetz would have had trouble getting confirmed. He knows that. That makes it all the more remarkable he took the extraordinary step of resigning from Congress last week in a last-ditch attempt to keep that report locked away in a safe. The resignation was immediate meaning the Ethics Committee no longer holds jurisdiction over him. That doesn’t mean they can’t still release the report. In recent decades they’ve done so twice – to two Democrats. However Speaker ‘Moses” Mike Johnson is saying no, no, no, no, NO! Alas for Johnson as I said there’s no rule saying the Ethics Committee can’t share the report with the Senate. Or release it publicly if they want. And there’s precedent. The other thing is that Speaker or not HE has no authority to tell the Ethics Committee what they can or can’t do. He even acknowledged it yesterday:
“The speaker does not have the authority to stop the release of a report by the ethics committee, but I’ve just simply said what I believe is an obvious point, that we don’t want to go down that road,” Johnson said on CNN.
So we have Mullin clearly calling for at least private sharing of the report which I’m sure means Gaetz’s nomination would be toast. Now, Markwayne Mullin is a rather interesting figure. He was elected to replace Jim Inhoffe but was serving in the House during Jan. 6. Mullin didn’t exactly endear himself to MAGAs when he said (he witnessed it) that Capitol Police had no choice but to shoot in that moment when Ashi Babbett was killed. He’s a self-made guy and the only member without at least a Bachelor’s Degree. Not what you think of when you think of a GOP Senator. In any case for the moment he’s not saying ‘no freaking way’ to confirming Gaetz but clearly he’s not inclined that way. Like I said he’s probably one of many in the GOP that want cover from the political firestorm Trump would unleash.
The thing to watch for in the days and weeks ahead is how many GOP Senators go on record and simply refuse to confirm Gaetz without seeing that Ethics Committee report. Or even holding a hearing! There’s safety in numbers and if Yertle (aka Mitch McConnell) takes a similar stand watch out. Mullin will have plenty of company. Stock up on popcorn folks. I think you’re going to be needing a lot of it.
You forgot to say Brain Bleach and a wire brush. 😉 Too bad that “the people” can’t truly see what he is in regards to this guy. He doesn’t belong in ANY public office. The guy is well trodden-on poo on asphalt on a 90 odd degrees day. I have had to skip a bunch of articles on my Flipboard because ew, slimy. Fortunately we have you to cut through the nonsense!!! Thank you!
More repulsive AND more repellent than Ted Cruz?
Almost unbelievably.
Yes.