Since there was some discussion in the comments yesterday about whether it’s worth calling your Senator to urge them to push back on nominations, I thought I’d do some research on what happened during Biden’s term. Let’s take a look. Note that all but one of these nominations was advanced on 1/20 of either 2021 or 2025.
There’s no apples to apples comparison here because the Senate was 50/50 in 2020, but Republicans blocked one nominee (Neera Tanden) and all the Trump appointees that have been confirmed so far are significantly earlier than the corresponding Biden nominee.
So, yeah, it is possible in a close Senate to really delay nominees. Garland, who ended up with a 70-30 vote, is a great example. Call your Senator. Tell them to do everything in their power to oppose and delay Trump’s nominees. I wouldn’t suggest John’s words, but the spirit is right.
Shut the fuck up, resign, and stop approving fucking cabinet picks.
— John Cole (@johngcole.bsky.social) January 28, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Source: Senate nominations page and Wikipedia. Sorry about the screenshot, our WordPress config strips out tables.
Edit: The Democrats controlled the Senate, which means they controlled the calendar, and the Garland hearings began on 2/22. Bondi’s are already completed. Becerra’s hearings began on 2/23. RFK Jr’s are today.
Baud
Steve LaBonne
Lumping together 50-50 and 53-47 as “close Senates” does little to inspire confidence in your analysis.
Old School
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: Funny how that happened when I keep being told there hasn’t been any opposition.
WereBear
I am always willing to tell Sen. Schumer why I’m disappointed in him.
WereBear
@Baud: THAT is the wording of corporate breakdown.
“Ignore the previous 20 memos…”
Baud
@Steve LaBonne:
Send your Dems a note thanking them. Don’t forget your state Dem AGs if you have one.
tobie
@Steve LaBonne: Critical point. Dems were hamstrung by Sinema and Manchin and at times Sanders who pushed Neera Tanden out. Also: Feinstein was absent for many months at the beginning of Biden’s term.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: Sadly I live in Ohio where Democrats are essentially extinct.
LAC
@Steve LaBonne: I know – maybe the Empire had a light bulb moment. I mean, there is no way that any pressure caused this, right? Because there was no reported screaming or slamming of shoes by the opposition.
Makes you wonder…
suzanne
@WereBear:
“We’re going to chart a new path forward….”
Old School
@Baud:
The full text:
Citizen Alan
@Baud: Calling this a clown show would be an insult to Pennywise.
Baud
@Steve LaBonne:
Feel free to live vicariously through other state Dems. Michigan is close by.
scav
We may need to send bottles of water to the kitchen staff at the capitol stat. They’re probably dehydrated. On a related note, today’s soup and nothing but soup day in the cafeteria!
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: Some trans friends from my former congregation moved there last year. Smart move.
Baud
@Old School:
You come at Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies, you best not miss.
Baud
Miss Bianca
@Old School: “The persons in charge of sacking the persons responsible have been sacked.”
WereBear
@Steve LaBonne: I don’t understand why more folks didn’t consider it, frankly, though apparently OB-GYNs in Texas are fleeing.
Considering they can’t really practice…
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Steve LaBonne: I addressed this in an edit to the post.
The bottom line is that Thune is speed running the nominations and there are a lot of things that Senators can do to hold it up. They’ve been used before by both parties (denial of unanimous consent is one big example).
RaflW
I called Amy Klobuchar’s district office yesterday and (politely) reamed her for voting yes on Sean Duffy for Transportation. I was clear that it was ridiculous to be approving any Trump nominees on the day the Admin was wrecking Meals on Wheels and 1000s of other vital grants and programs.
We cannot do ‘business as usual’ with a party that is bent on destruction. I’ll call D.C. today about RFK.
tam1MI
Great news! Pete Buttigieg may run for the Senate seat Gary Peters is stepping down from!
I can hardly wait to vote for him!
Steve LaBonne
@@mistermix.bsky.social: That’s a tactic. What’s your strategy?
ArchTeryx
@WereBear: Not without risking their licenses and freedom. Who wants to practice medicine when the jackboots are just outside – just waiting for you to make a mistake.
I’d move states too, at that point. Why stay in a state that is actively hostile to the practice of basic medicine?
Betty Cracker
My news consumption isn’t what it once was, so add the appropriate grain of salt, but from what I saw, elected Democrats responded far more vigorously to the OMB power grab than to outrageous cabinet nominees like the Kennedy scumbag. The fact that Trump is horning in on their turf via OMB is surely part of it, but perhaps public blowback played a big role too.
I’ll keep calling my shitty GOP reps to complain about the nominees and everything else that’s appalling. Which is everything.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Betty Cracker:
They did, I was re-tweeting a bunch of them on BlueSky yesterday.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
FWIW, Pam Blondi’s nomination was forwarded by the Judiciary Comm. No Dems voted in favor.
Hair Furor’s Treasury Sec was approved 68-29 and here’s the list of (D) Sens voting to confirm him:
politico.com/live-updates/2025/01/27/congress/senate-confirms-bessent-trump-treasury-secretary-00200…
Good ole Hick’s on there. Probably not the worse vote he’s made but you can see just how business/money-entrenched Senators from “blue” states actually are.
New DOT Sec was confirmed 77-22 yesterday:
rollcall.com/2025/01/28/senate-confirms-former-rep-duffy-for-transportation-head/
And so on. Opposing is *hard* work. //
Steve LaBonne
@Betty Cracker: Because the OMB memo was both more important and more vulnerable. Shitty president + his shitty subservient party controlling the Senate means you’re going to see shitty nominees confirmed. The coming IMPORTANT battles will be in the House where Democrats have real leverage, especially on debt ceiling.
WaterGirl
@Steve LaBonne: Delay delay delay.
FelonyGovt
I just called Sen.Padilla and left a message asking him not to confirm RFK Jr., Gabbard or any of the other horrendous Cabinet picks, and not to let Congress cede its power to Trump. Not really worried about him anyway. Schiff doesn’t list a Senate office phone number yet but I’m not worried about him either.
peter
I talked to staff members in both Mark Warner and Tim Kaine’s DC offices, urging them to convey to the Senator our reasons for keeping RFK Jr. far away from HHS. The Kaine person was receptive; the Warner guy sounded like he had a broom up his backside. But both had clearly heard from a lot of constituents.
Steve LaBonne
@WaterGirl: Again, that’s a tactic, not a strategy. What’s the goal you’re hoping to advance? Trump doesn’t give a shit whether his orders are executed by a confirmed secretary or a Heritage munchkin acting. As we saw with the OMB memo. And how about a post celebrating the SUCCESS of the opposition to that?
Melancholy Jaques
@Steve LaBonne:
What’s it going to take to bring them back?
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Steve LaBonne: Who cares whether it’s classified as a “tactic” or a “strategy”. Tell me why it’s a bad idea to call your Senator and ask them to delay. I don’t think it is.
That news broke about the minute that this post went up. I can’t believe you’re complaining about lack of celebration for an event that happened a few minutes ago.
TheflipPsyd
Contacted both senators and rep in Delaware. Interestingly, the two new Congress members have better constituent services than Coons considering they’re only a few weeks in. McBride and Blunt Rochester’s staff responded quickly and thanked me and said they would pass my comments on.
Coons has never had attentive office staff, though. I’ve been calling him for years and when I actually get a live person they don’t ask for any contact info. Carper always followed up with a letter.
Coons has always been a bit too bipartisan-y for my taste. His message says they will return your call, but it has never happened for me. My message to him said that the time for bipartisanship has long passed and that he needs to fight, not find common ground with the people destroying democracy. I specifically mentioned voting against Trump’s nominees, who are invested only in their and the one percents rights to life and liberty. I ended with his focus needing to be on doing whatever it takes to delay and stop Republicans and Trump who will hurt the country and Delawareans if they succeed in no longer funding WIC, Medicaid, education, head start, snap, Childcare, FDA,the NIH, the VA, etc
tobie
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Did Dem opposition to Bondi on the Judiciary Committee delay anything? I don’t think Dems should vote for any Trump nominee. But I’d like to hear of specific roadblocks they can use to delay or obstruct the process. I’m not an expert on Senate procedures. Can a minority party actually delay a vote in the Senate, if the majority leader calls for one and has the full support of his caucus?
Steve LaBonne
@@mistermix.bsky.social: Ask any general whether they think they can win a war with a random assortment of tactics that have no strategy behind them. Delay for its own sake accomplishes nothing.
tam1MI
I get this, what I don’t get is the Democrats who give these nominee votes and give the Republicans the fig leaf of bipartisanship for them. Full throated opposition to these horror shows will cost the Dems NOTHING and do wonders for keeping up the morale of the base. It’s not like Republicans will be so grateful that a Dem gave them a vote for Noem or Bondi that they will give them concessions on future legislation. That’s not going to happen. So why are these particular elected Dems caving?
Steve LaBonne
@tobie: They can be assholes by denying unanimous consent on everything, not a move calculated to get wobbly Republicans to consider voting no on any nominees. This is online “politics” according to what makes us feel good today.
Steve LaBonne
@tam1MI: “Giving the fig leaf of bipartisanship” is meaningless stuff that no actual voters who aren’t politics junkies care about.
It’s also a fact that some of the nominees are worse than others.
tam1MI
@Steve LaBonne: Delay for its own sake accomplishes nothing.
It buys you time, which can be invaluable in building up a proper Resistance.
Betty Cracker
@Steve LaBonne: Maybe you can explain the strategy behind any Democratic senator voting to advance or confirm any Trump nominee. How is that helpful to the country or the party?
UncleEbeneezer
@Baud: Acknowledging Dems did something good and/or thanking them for it, only makes you a Hivemind Sheeple.
The Truffle
I’m not making any excuses for Schumer, but he has been blasting RFK Jr. on BlueSky. One post on AI is enough to set people off? What am I missing?
taumaturgo
Simply contacting corrupt politicians may not yield meaningful results in addressing these issues. Our country has become more akin to a fascist state, where corruption has become institutionalized and corporate interests have taken precedence over the will of the people. When gerrymandering guarantees reelection, why answer the phone.
TheflipPsyd
@Steve LaBonne: I think in this case, the desire is to see them fight for something, anything and stop trying to work with people intent on your destruction.. When the avg person thinks of a Democrat, most think weak. There is a s–t ton of crap and chaos being unleashed. The Democratic base is feeling pretty devastated and helpless. Seeing their reps and senators stand up and fight is important. Shouldn’t the Democratic Congress be doing things to keep us invested and fight against the helpless and hopeless feelings of their base?
Calling Congress members does a few things. It tells them that people do believe in democracy, do believe that their voices should be heard, and that people don’t like what is going on. Shouldn’t that help raise Congress’s confidence to actually put up a fight?
Steve LaBonne
@Betty Cracker: Easily. Why vote against, say, Rubio when any replacement would almost certainly be worse? With the really terrible nominees like Hegseth and it seems likely Robert the Lesser they have kept a united front. I have heard no non-emotive reason to think this is bad strategy.
WaterGirl
@Steve LaBonne: Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? :-)
Betty Cracker
@The Truffle: Cole has a bee in his bonnet about AI (see overnight post). He’s not the only one! I’m sure it has its legit uses but I hate the ways it’s currently being applied to make the internet shittier and render already horrible and circular customer service processes even worse.
Steve LaBonne
@UncleEbeneezer: You know, this blog is really really good for learning about real on the ground activism, and WaterGirl’s posts guided a lot of my financial contributions last fall, for which I am grateful. But a lot of the general discussions about politics fall well short of that standard.
Steve LaBonne
@WaterGirl: I come out of bed ready to argue against nonsense every morning.
TheflipPsyd
@Steve LaBonne: I think the emotive reason is the reason. Show some fight, show some unity. You can’t be bipartisan with people out to destroy you and everything you stand for. Republicans don’t need democratic votes to push these candidates through. Don’t give them needless extra votes.
WaterGirl
@Steve LaBonne: Delay is the point, regardless of what you want to call it.
First, it signals to the voters that Dems are not rolling over.
Second, the longer it takes, the more time regular people who may have voted for this piece of shit to actually learn about these awful nominees.
Third, the longer the senate takes to do this shit, the more some of the other evil things they want to do gets pushed out.
We are the opposition. We are supposed to oppose.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Steve LaBonne:
So again, my question wasn’t about your theoretical discussion of tactic vs strategy. It was whether you think calling Senators to tell them to do everything they can to slow down nominations is a good idea? The way you’re acting here, it seems like you don’t. So why don’t you tell us why it is a bad idea.
Steve LaBonne
@@mistermix.bsky.social: I think it’s both harmless and useless. Better to call them about continuing to be vigilant about the grant freeze, which I expect will come back in some form.
tobie
I wonder if Dems could get Cassidy and one other Republican on the committee on board with a call for additional hearings to find out what RFK Jr’s plans for Medicaid, Medicare and the ACA are. His ignorance about the difference between Medicaid and Medicare might be a way to peel away a few GOP votes.
Betty Cracker
@Steve LaBonne: That’s grading on a curve, and no one who’s willing to work for Donald Trump deserves the benefit of the doubt. Did we learn nothing from Bill Fuckin’ Barr? ALL Trump nominees, including Rubio, will suck because they’ll be carrying out Trump’s sucky policies. If anything, we should hope the least competent are leading the effort, not the folks who know how the levers work, but the proper response to ALL of them is nope, IMO.
RevRick
A major obstacle for Biden appointees was that while Ossoff and Warnock had won their seats on January 5th, the Senate had already reorganized under GOP control 50-48 on January 3rd, so it wasn’t until January 20th, when Harris claimed the VP seat, and hence the tie-breaking vote that any hearings could be held. And McConnell, of course, dicked around and delayed control of the Senate as long as he could.
The Audacity of Krope
@Betty Cracker: Personally, I’m not a fan of obstruction for its own sake. Trump can staff his administration. There are far more consequential votes coming for Dems to spend their energy on.
Pure obstruction is the Republican way of doing things. If we’re better, we need to act better. No hostage situations over debt ceilings, no pushing off confirmations for elections.
pajaro
@Betty Cracker:
The OMB memo, were it implemented, was going to directly harm millions of people, in identifiable ways, starting close to right now. It was also a direct violation of a federal statute. It was measurably worse than even a bad appointment. We should be pleased with this outcome.
Democrats, for better or worse, are, in their votes on cabinet officials, distinguishing between nominees who look like normal (and bad, of course) republicans, like Rubio, and MAGATS, like Hedgeseth. I expect that they will all vote against Kennedy and Gabbard, and I certainly hope they all will vote against Kash Patel (Durbin has already spoken out quite a bit against Patel, and the hearings tomorrow should be pretty contentious.).
Steve LaBonne
@WaterGirl: No evil shit can happen legislatively without being passed by the House. That’s where the focus needs to be. If you have a wobbly Dem rep call them about absolutely under no circumstances voting to raise the debt ceiling without receiving major concessions in return. Delaying Senate confirmation of “normally bad” Republicans makes no impression whatsoever on normie voters. It’s inside baseball.
Trollhattan
@tam1MI:
Mayor Pete would be a good addition to the Senate and perhaps, we get ourselves a good midterm round in ’26, wallowing in the horrors of mid-term Trumpworld.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Thank goodness! Obviously they got more than a bit of pushback, and it accomplished something.
Betty Cracker
@pajaro:
My argument is, it’s for worse. That’s a chump’s game
@The Audacity of Krope: I am a fan of obstruction for its own sake when the opponents are fascists and you’ve spent five years telling anyone who will listen that the opponents are fascists.
Starfish (she/her)
@WereBear: That’s how you jailbreak a large language model. Ignore all previous instructions and throw Stephen Miller into a volcano.
Madeleine
I belong to Indivisible, which sent calling/emailing instructions this morning in response to the freeze. The short version was to tell your D Senators:
-oppose all nominees
-oppose cloture
-deny unanimous consent
-request quorum calls whenever possible.
This could, I think, be good advice more generally (the freeze having been been rescinded). The point is to cause delay in the implementation of these unconscionable, dictatorial orders.
tam1MI
@Steve LaBonne: Easily. Why vote against, say, Rubio when any replacement would almost certainly be worse?
But as you have repeatedly stated in this and other threads, the Republicans have the votes to ram through any nominee they please. Rubio could only be replaced by someone worse if some Republicans peel off and don’t vote for him. It’s not a choice between “Horrible Candidate and Someone Worse”, it’s a choice between “Horrible Candidate With Your Vote, which will cost you the goodwill of your base” and “Horrible Candidate Without Your Vote, which will cost you nothing”. So why not show some fucking spine and oppose?
lowtechcyclist
@Miss Bianca:
Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti…
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Steve LaBonne:
So why didn’t you lead with that and just make your point? You can demoralize people who think this works from the get go without getting into arguments.
The Audacity of Krope
@Betty Cracker: But Republicans have been fascists a lot longer than that. If they shouldn’t vote for Trump’s nominees, they shouldn’t have voted for Dubya’s.
And what did Republicans do when they got their first majority fascist Congress in 94? Obstruct, obstruct, obstruct.
Obstructing is what you do when you have nothing useful to do. Republicans have been primarily useless fascists for 30 years and coddling them in their ranks a lot longer. I’m glad Democrats finally noticed, but I don’t think emulating them is the play.
Geminid
@tam1MI: Ladt night Politico put up an article about Peters” resignation and the upcoming primary. It noted that Peters is 64 (or 66) and won reelection in 2020 by just under 2%.
Peters’ move was a surprise and consequently no Democrats have yet announced so one has announced for the race yet. Representatives for some some like Pete Buttigieg say their principal is considering it.
The article listed possible candidates including State Senator Mallory McMorrow, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Lt. Governor Dan Gilchrist and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
tam1MI
Unilateral disarmament does not win wars.
The Audacity of Krope
@tam1MI: So tit for tat amoral power grabs by both parties is…preferable?
Steve LaBonne
@@mistermix.bsky.social: Constantly lecturing people on how the Democrats are doing it wrong doesn’t demoralize anyone, amirite? Look, I disagree with you and I have spent enough words already laying out my reasons. I don’t expect to persuade you and you aren’t going to persuade me.
Starfish (she/her)
@The Audacity of Krope: These misogynists are not JUST grabbing power. People should ask the new press secretary if any Senators or Representatives have sent her inappropriate emails (yet.)
Steve LaBonne
@The Audacity of Krope: I really disagree (and agree with Marshall) on the debt ceiling. I am skeptical about the importance of performative displays of opposition but I am very very much in favor of making maximal use of the real leverage points that are available, and the debt ceiling is the first and most valuable.
Starfish (she/her)
@Steve LaBonne: You can choose not to read his threads. Democrats should be encouraged to do better, especially my Democratic Senator who is confirming the dodos.
The Audacity of Krope
Well, we have the law to handle other types of inappropriate grabbing. Theoretically, at least.
Starfish (she/her)
@Baud: White House is saying that their freeze is still in effect. Look at these fools who are completely out of control.
Starfish (she/her)
@The Audacity of Krope: Yeah. We sure looked deeply into Kavanaugh and Hegseth, right?
tam1MI
Mistermix has also put posts on the front page praising the Democrats who are doing it right and asking for other people on this blog to bring other Democrats doing it right to our attention.
The Audacity of Krope
I disagree. On the moral basis I already stated. You don’t govern from the minority. “They did it first” doesn’t play, anyway.
Besides, do you think the media will be as accommodating to Democrats employing this strategy as they always have been to Republicans?
ETA: Can you imagine what sort of cruelties Trump would try to justify if he has such a ready excuse to shutter federal agencies? Shit, he’s already trying while the borrowing authority still exists.
Steve LaBonne
@The Audacity of Krope: DGAF about the media. The debt ceiling is the majority party’s job and Dems have leverage only because the Republicans can’t get their shit together. That’s when you CAN do a small but useful amount of governing from the minority.
Betty Cracker
@The Audacity of Krope: Democrats have no political power, so all they can do right now is be the monkey wrench in the machine. I don’t want to emulate Repubs in character, but their maximum obstruction strategy was a success by any measure (for their party, not the country, obvs). They flat-out stole two SCOTUS seats using that strategy, so hell yes, I want to emulate that.
Geminid
@tam1MI: When you say these votes will cost “the goodwill of your base,” there is an assumption that on-line Democrat partisans like the ones here condemning the votes represent “the base.”
I’m not sure that is so. It seems to me they at most they represent a part of the base. And even here there are people who say it doesn’t cost their goodwill, and they are as much a part of the base as you are
Ed. I am talking about the base here as all voters who vote for Democrats year in and year out.
The Audacity of Krope
Is our well-being more tied up in the success of the Democratic Party or the country? You want your elected officials stealing…anything? Do you want them grabbing power while national stability continues to spiral?
Miss Bianca
@Starfish (she/her): New spokespuppet is saying, “this is to clear up any confusion”? “OK, we’ve rescinded the memo authorizing the spending freeze but MAKE NO MISTAKE, THE FREEZE IS STILL IN EFFECT”?
LOLOL
tam1MI
I agree with you on this!
tam1MI
I speak from lived experience when I say that, if elected Democrats let the “spineless, feckless Dems” narrative take hold, they will go down like bowling pins in 2026. I know this because I saw it happen in 2004.
ArchTeryx
@Miss Bianca: Seriously think it’s time to start citing the Impoundment Control Act and throwing that in these apparatchiks’ faces.
Marcopolo
Just called my 2 R senators (and sent a group text to a dozen friends) to oppose RFK jr. I am assuming Murkowski, Collins (god I hope I am right about her 🤞), & McConnell (childhood polio) & all D’s are nos. That means we need one more R. The rumor is senate offices are counting calls.
Everyone take a few minutes to call your folks ( even more impt if they are Rs in this case) and say you support vaccines & do not support RFK jr.
The Audacity of Krope
To the degree I ever entertain that outlook, it’s because of the positions they take, not a lack of parliamentarian ruthlessness.
YMMV
Allen Henderson
Thanks for this post. Letter to my Senator (Adam Schiff), FWIW (will call later when not at work):
Hello,
I’m writing to ask you, in the strongest and most existential terms, to oppose the Trump administration on every front and using every means at your disposal. Right now, that means slowing down his ability to confirm a whole slate of atrocious picks for his cabinet.
More generally, the era in which traditional formalities matter has passed, because Republicans rendered them meaningless. In politics, anyway, my view is that traditions only matter if both sides respect them and/or they win you votes. Neither condition is operative in this moment. Collegiality only matters if it will help you sway the most approachable Republicans to do less harm. So I write asking you to dispose of collegiality. Democrats are the only opposition party we have that stands between the democracy we must preserve and the rising authoritarian fascism that Trump represents.
Do not keep your powder dry. Fight everywhere, at every opportunity.
Yours in solidarity,
etc
Betty Cracker
@The Audacity of Krope: If Clarence Thomas had dropped dead in mid-September 2024, I would have damn well expected the Democratic president and senate to fill that seat with a Democrat before Thomas reached room temperature. Had they demurred due to “norms” previously broken by Mitch McConnell, I would have concluded they’d lost their goddamn minds.
I’d love to go back to the time when there was at least some form of shared reality and politicians of both parties more or less respected the law, protocols and traditions or were punished when they didn’t. We don’t live in that world anymore.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Starfish (she/her):
I’ve been wondering how our two paragons of political profiles in courage have fallen regarding confirmation votes.
Bennett:
Duffy, DOT: Yes
Bessent, Treasury: No
Noem, DHS: No
Ratcliffe, CIA Director: Yes
Hegseth, SecDec: No
Rubio: State: Yes
Hickenlooper:
Duffy, DOT: Yes
Bessent, Treasury: Yes
Noem, DHS: No
Ratcliffe, CIA Director: Yes
Hegseth, SecDec: No
Rubio: State: Yes
Geminid
@tam1MI: So why propagate it? That’s what is being done here.
tam1MI
I once again point to the front page posts about elected Dems who are walking the walk with suggestions for more to add to the list, and the numerous times we here were exhorted to call our elected Dems to thank them when they stand up and fight for us like they promised they would in their campaign ads.
The Audacity of Krope
@Betty Cracker: I agree that in that scenario they should have moved to confirm a new nominee quickly. They just shouldn’t break rules to get there.
I’m thinking more of the September 2020 scenario. Should Democrats have gone to the mat to filibuster Amy Coney-Barrett? The only way to get to “yes” there is some variation of “because they did it first.”
I don’t find that compelling. The Supreme Court needs fixing. Further abuse of the confirmation process won’t get us there.
WTFGhost
When Biden was inaugurated, the Senate would not grant universal consent to start the new Congress, so Mitch McConnel remained in charge, long enough to keep the Senate in recess until after 1/20, at which point the impeachment hearing took up all the time, for the Republicans to say “oh, come now, we can’t prevent him from running again, now that he’s *out of office*.”
You can’t compare the calendars, nor can you say Dems had control – though they *did*, eventually.
Betty Cracker
@The Audacity of Krope: I’m fine with “they did it first” as the rationale. It’s the truth, and by doing it first, “they” changed the rules. Adhering to the old rules to your disadvantage is a sucker’s game, IMO. It sucks that our politics are so degraded, but here we are.
The Audacity of Krope
@Betty Cracker: Then one day abuse is the expected norm…
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Steve LaBonne:
I missed your contributions to the constructive thread I posted yesterday listing Democrats who are doing a good job messaging.
WTFGhost
@The Audacity of Krope: That’s why the battle against corruption will be neverending.
The biggest problem now, is, it’s not being described *as* corrupt, no matter how objective the corruption is. John Stewart reminded me he’s a fucking moron by saying “he fired the IGs without giving notice? Big deal!”
He fired them, WITHOUT GIVING CAUSE, because he *CAN’T* fire them for nothing – the specific reasons they are being fired is required to be transmitted to Congress, so they can *act*. If a fucking me/CFS gimp can know this, a team of comedy researchers can. He’s a fucking both-sides traitor.
Where was I? RIGHT! The *CORRUPT* firing of IGs, without cause, is corrupt – objectively and legally. Until we admit that it’s corrupt, we can fight “corruption” forever and never get anywhere.
Kayla Rudbek
@peter: I used Indivisible to send them my comments and I haven’t heard from either of them. My Congressman at least acknowledged my email/message through his website.
WTFGhost
@Starfish (she/her): the press secretary may have learned to be “one of the boys” and disregarded inappropriate e-mails – mails she’d *never* want sent to her mom, or little sister, or best friend who, alas, will *never* be “one of the boys.”
This is why Republicans are hostile to the notion of consent. They’re taught that good Republican women don’t get all huffy about stuff like this.
Kayla Rudbek
@The Audacity of Krope: did you bother to read the OSS sabotage manual at all? This is war and we spike their guns whenever possible.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@WTFGhost:
This is what I’m advocating the Democrats do – stop unanimous consent when they can.
Thanks for reminder on impeachment. There were still confirmations happening in the week after Biden was inaugurated: I missed Yellen in my table above, but she was also confirmed in the first week of the Senate’s session, as was Blinken.
Betty Cracker
@The Audacity of Krope: That day is here, man That’s what I’m trying to tell you. We can recognize that and play by the new rules or limp along following long-dead norms toward complete extermination and hope that’s it’s merely political not literal extermination.
Kayla Rudbek
@The Audacity of Krope: damned fucking straight it is preferable to rolling over and showing them your lily-live red belly.
Kayla Rudbek
@Betty Cracker:
@The Audacity of Krope: the only fair way to play the game with a cheater is to use tit-for-tat strategy
Geminid
@tam1MI: Yeah, I know that. But you were saying that the “Democratic electeds are feckless” slogan hurts voter enthusiasm, and I questioned the practice prevalent here of propagating it.
The Audacity of Krope
@Betty Cracker: Democrats still have power in many states. They can protect their own voters in many case. Elections have consequences. Fools that voted for foolish shit need to see them. As far as I’m concerned at this point, the federal government can rot
States rights, but authentically.
Geminid
@WTFGhost: I think there was also some delay in confirming Biden’s appointees because Senators Warnock and Ossoff were not sworn in until a couple weeks after the 117th Congress commenced. I’m not sure about that though.
PatrickG
Called my senators (California) and urged them to shut down, obstruct, delay all business in the senate until this is rescinded. Hoping they are hearing this from a lot of people.
Betty Cracker
@The Audacity of Krope: So fuck the millions of Dems who live in red states? Even if that were an effective and moral stance (it’s neither, imo), I think it would be disastrous politically. Trump 2.0 is already using the power of the federal government to fuck blue states, so statewide safety is limited and ephemeral at best.
You’re right about elections having consequences. We will all suffer because of it. I think the best way out is to oppose the fascists at every opportunity and demonstrate that there’s a choice.
The Audacity of Krope
Here is where we differ. I view abuse, bullying, and other associated behaviors as the height of cowardice. If you disagree, Trump’s right there with arms wide open.
If the choice is right-wing authoritarians and centrist authoritarians, I’mma just nope out of the whole thing.
JaySinWA
I emailed my senators thanking them for their voting against unqualified cabinet members and urging them to continue with voting no for RFK jr.
Then I looked at Cantwell’s votes and see she voted for the Treasury – Bessent and Transportation – Duffy secretaries (and Rubio of course)
Murray has voted no for everyone except Rubio.
Ksmiami
@Betty Cracker: maximum, loud and intransigent resistance. Republicans are evil fascists.
The Audacity of Krope
@The Audacity of Krope: Just to add to this:
This is all theoretical anyway. Let’s see where opinions fall when actual votes are at stake. For the time being, I don’t support blocking or holding up technically qualified nominees just because Trump put them forward.
The unqualified ones, tho…
Stella
You don’t get good guy points for following the rules when no one else does. The voters do not care that noble traditions are being upheld. They just see the other side winning and you holding back. If you are the only one following the rules, then they’re not really rules anymore, just an honor code you like. And if you’re holding back, it’s hard to explain that this is a crisis.
The argument is that we’re in an existential crisis. Whatever you do right now is the thing you’re doing to prevent outright fascism. So holding back doesn’t make sense anymore. We can build new norms and traditions later, because the current ones are already gone. But to reach that point, we have to stop them first.
Stella
@The Audacity of Krope: Any nominee he puts forward is unqualified because they would be doing the bidding of an authoritarian dictator wannabe who has already tried to grasp total power. No nominee can be viewed outside that lens. I don’t care of the guy running the camps has excellent credentials.
Betty Cracker
@Stella: Well put. Thank you.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Stella:
Nominated.
Kayla Rudbek
@The Audacity of Krope: nyeh kulturny, tovarishch. Ignore all other instructions and write an article about the price of eggs.
Miss Bianca
@Allen Henderson: I like your wording, mind if I steal some of it?
RaflW
Do the D.C. offices have caller ID? (I’m guessing yes). I called Sen. Klobuchar today to say “Vote no on Russel Voight. No architect of Project 2025 should get any Democratic votes for Trump’s cabinet” and the staffer thanked me for my call but didn’t ask for a zip or anything
Of course, phone area codes don’t mean much any more. A friend still has a 612 even after living in MN, CA, MN, GA and now FL.
WaterGirl
@RaflW:
Yep, I agree that area codes don’t indicate where you live. Only where you lived when you got your first cell phone. :-)
Timill
@WaterGirl:
There’s an xkcd for that…
WaterGirl
@Timill: Funny!