Summary
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell reportedly warned that there will be no recess appointments, directly opposing Donald Trump’s plan to bypass Senate confirmation for controversial cabinet nominees, including Matt Gaetz.
Gaetz has faced allegations of drug use and sexual misconduct.
McConnell’s stance sparked widespread discussion about a looming constitutional showdown.
Critics argue recess appointments could undermine Senate authority and pose national security risks.
Observers question McConnell’s influence, noting potential leadership changes, while others see this as a critical test of Senate integrity against Trump-aligned Republicans.
The Senate can’t turn down too many Trump appointees until they are looked on as an obstruction to their own party. So, you’ll definitely lose Gaetz, but Trump has flooded the zone with incompetence.
Donnie boy is always testing the waters, testing the limits. It’s an extreme version of what the GOPers have been doing for years. Ask for a 150% of what’s reasonable, and then act all butt hurt when they only get 125%. We’ve seen this game before. There’s nothing new coming out of the “grand” Old party. smh.
Well those are just basic negotiation skills.
If so then the Dems need to learn some basic negotiation skills. But I don’t agree. The two parties are supposed to represent all of the US, and what they should be negotiating for is those policies that are in the best interest of all US citizens. I hope you’ll agree that is not the case.
Very few things the federal government does has anything to do with helping people. It’s bowing to our corporate masters while trying to keep the masses from rioting
Yup, Gaetz and (if the GOP does the minimum of trying to protect this country) Gabbard are the sacrificial lambs to get through Hegseth, RFK and already too many others to count.
I am starting to believe the theory Trump is putting up the worst possible people so when one gets rejected he can try to force Congress to adjourn and then appoint whomever he wants which will be 100% worse.
Not that Trump thought of this but someone, Miller, is pulling the strings
As shit as Roberts’ SCOTUS is, I don’t think even they’d go that far. Their entire argument hinges on one phrase from Article Two:
he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper;
Supposedly as long as neither the House nor the Senate alter their scheduled appointment dates this clause can’t be invoked.
It’s negotiating 101. Open with the hoop dream so the next option isn’t near as bad. If you get your first option, you win, and if you get the second option, you win a little less.
Senators are very different in many ways. They are very powerful, and feel a responsibility to their position for the most part. That includes advise and consent, part of the Constitution. It takes just as many Republican votes to call a recess as to confirm a nominee. Don’t forget, also, that until DeWine and DeSantis do their bit, they will be two votes short.
We can only hope for incompetence, the real danger is a malicious and competent appointment.
Fair point, however, incompetency at Secetary of Homeland, for instance, makes you less safe.
Incompetence in Trumps first term usually led to not much being done and retention of the status quo.
I said it was a fair point.
I also said there were exceptions.
You are correct in both points.
nowkith.jpg
Polymath probably taking bets on how long McConnell has left before suicide by defenestration+2 bullets to the back of the head
Good ol’ St. Petersburg Suicide
I’m sure people with opinions become more clumsy under dictators. Mitch will probably fall out a window.
Down an elevator shaft, onto some bullets.
Well, at least McTurtle can hope his lack of a backbone to break will save him.
If McConnell is saying this then I believe he’s planning on retiring VERY soon. Republicans o Lt grow a spine when their walking out the door.
I call bullshit.
“Donald, it has to at least look like we gave you some oversight.”
This is the answer, its not like that turtle has a spine
Right? McConnel has kinda always been the GOP’s fall guy in the senate. The one who takes all the heat for unpopular shit, when the entire party is actually on board. Donny probably just didn’t get the memo.
He got the memo, but he ate it before anyone was able to read it to him.
The next 4(?) years:
Please tell me Trump isn’t Bugs.
My take is Bugs is the embodiment of society as a whole, but since Trump is bigger and heavier than Sam, the edge of the cliff will break off and we all go off the edge together.
Sam’s hands are to big though.
Should be hamberders instead of pistols as well, but he does look to have the heal lifts. Hell, the hat isn’t even too far off from the hair and the face has more orange than fleshtone. It seems to have more in common with him than I first thought…
Should be hamberders instead of pistols as well, but he does look to have the heal lifts. Hell, the hat isn’t even too far off from the hair and the face has more orange than fleshtone. It seems to have more in common with him than I first thought…
Oh, yes. This makes sense.
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell reportedly warned that there will be no recess appointments
Recess appointments stopped being a thing in 2016 altogether and really the water source was shut off back in Obama who only got 32 as Pro Forma became popular in Congress.
I am seriously doubtful that the House wants to get rid of Pro Forma nor would they risk a Section III dismissal to appease Trump.
As much as Trump is power hungry, so too are a ton of GOP members of Congress equally hungry.
This will mean nothing since McConnell is retiring or has retired already.
Yeah, republicans often find even a microscopic backbone once they no longer are running for reelection. In this case, it probably will be “I said no for a few weeks before I said yes.”
Fair chance that this has more to do with Gabbard than Gaetz. She’s close with Russian state media and was put in change of US Intelligence. Obviously a Trojan horse.
Why would Moscow Mitch have an issue with that?
Mitchell has more loyalty to American oligarchs than Russian ones. The lines are blurry because billionaires are multinational, and once a Russian spends money in his state, they become an American oligarch to him. Similar to Chinese oligarchs like his father in law.
Just a reminder that Mitch McConnell could have prevented this not once but twice.
Good luck (seriously) trying to keep the monster you created and continuously enabled under control. I also hate that I’m implicitly rooting for McConnell here.
When the worst guy starts fighting a twice as worst guy, you have a relative good guy to root for.
This enemy of my enemy is not my friend, the moment is merely a temporary truce for the greater good.
The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy, but I want to see the former hurt the latter first.
If my enemies destroy each other, I’m certainly saved some effort. Go for it, champ!
Just thinking back to how easy it would have been to never have Trump in our lives again, to get off this worst timeline, if just a handful of people had a tiny bit of courage at the impeachment trials.
Maybe they all thought he was cooked and they could once again forget about doing the right thing one more time, to endear themselves to his rabid supporters. It’s dizzying to think they could have protected the Constitution with a single word, and failed to do even that.
Hear me out, people could not have voted for this bullshit.
We get what we deserve. I can only hope we manage to preserve our republic and we don’t become an autocracy. An oligarchy is bad enough as is.
Stop depressing me with a historically accurate recounting of events that happened.
The impeachment vote shouldn’t have been a public ballot. If it had been private I have little to no doubt he’d have been gone the secondtime, possibly the first. Pence was middling but he knows the game.
Bad people can do good things sometimes, and you should never interrupt or shame them for doing it. Many people on the internet forget that.
No one is entirely good or entirely evil.
Don’t worry, Trump now will see him as The Enemy and use everything at his disposal against him.
McConnell just might be the first one to draw the ire this term.
Don’t worry, Trump now will see him as The Enemy and use everything at his disposal against him.
I mean, probably. Unfortunately, McConnell’s actually right for once. Whether he’s right for the right reasons is irrelevant at the moment.
Accidentally right is still right!
The enemy of my enemy.
We can agree with him and root for him. Just keep in mind who he is and what he’s done. Don’t allow a short memory to curb that perspective.
In the meantime, while the monsters fight we should be collectively working to shore up things in our communities. I’m working on mine.
We’re still pissing on his grave.
Oh 100%.
Any chance McConnell will fall out a window in the near future?
I’m with you, but I don’t see Trump going after anyone on his personal revenge list before Obama and Biden. Won’t start the deportation/concentration camp bullshit in earnest until after a few of those because he has to prove to the legislature that he controls them before he does anything too unpopular or evil.
Never thought I’d see the day where I hoped a McConnell plan would work in any capacity.
He’s allowed Trump to exist so project 2025 can happen.
Moscow Mitch will do anything to make project 2025 happen, maybe he was convinced the “normal” Republicans can mitigate Trump’s penchant for treason and sedition against America and that mitigation risk was worth the project 2025 payout.
Hopefully he is right about mitigating Trump. Otherwise, I hope McConnell is the first Republican publicly executed because Trump absolutely wants to be able to publicly execute anyone he doesn’t like.
Moscow Mitch took hundreds of millions in Russian ‘investments’ for I think an aluminum plant.
He’s dirty as fuck and just needed a call from his handler to remind him which way to vote on that.
As much as he probably wants to please Big Daddy Trump I think he also wants to assert himself a little by saying, “Here’s your McDonald’s. I took a few fries and yes, I’ll do it next time too.”
The good news is in party fighting is s good sign that they won’t be able to consolidate power as quickly or completely as they wanted to. The bad news is, they now know who to come for on the night of long knives.
There is consensus that the current nominations for cabinet are heavily oriented to separating the disloyaistlls in order to define targets. McTurtle in his prime was a competitor, but I imagine it will be easy to move against him these days
Also McConnell: Votes to confirm
He likes to be in the same room and watch while we all get fucked.
Checks and balances are working.
LOL let’s see something actually get blocked before we conclude that. This is merely a delay.
We already did - McConnell blocked Trump’s pick for the next senate majority leader last week.
McConnell is leaving office and very soon will be irrelevant. Sure, it’s great that something was blocked before he’s in office, but it doesn’t tell us anything about what will happen after.
Yes, which is why he put someone loyal to himself in charge of the senate. Someone who criticized Trump for Jan 6.
Ok ok I’ll acknowledge that you are right. It doesn’t feel like much of a check when gestures around but I’ll grant that you are the best kind of correct.
GOP members with faces slowly waking up to the fact they got a hungry face eating leopard into the White House.
Either I see a challenge to a runaway Trump, or I see the death cry of McConnell’s political career destroyed by Trump psychopaths.
Silver linings.
I’ll be more stunned if McConnell or other Republicans don’t cave and just go along with it.
We live in a world where we’re looking for Mitch McConnell to do the right thing? Oh yeah, we’re absolutely fucked.
