How Low Will They Go?

Today, the senate Democrats boycotted the committee votes on the nominations of Tom Price as Secretary of HHS and Steve Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury.  The Democrats on the committees had mostly indicated that they would oppose the nominations.  By refusing to show up to the meeting, however, the Democrats deprived them of a quorum which means the meeting had to be postponed.  In senate terms, this is the rough equivalent of the kid who is losing at basketball and suddenly decides to take his basketball and go home thereby ending not just his own participation but the game itself.  In other words, the Democrats are just sore losers.

The Democrats say that they need more information before they can vote.  They base the need for that information on media reports from their allies in the press who have raised issues that have already been covered in prior hearings.  Meanwhile two large and important federal departments have been left without leadership.

If the Democrats are going to use childish tactics to shut down the work of the senate, then there will need to be a change in the rules or an action taken by Congress to shut down this nonsense.  For example, the senate could adjourn for eleven days and have President Trump appoint all of his nominees by recess appointment.  Once the recess ended, the votes on the full nomination could proceed.  The nominees would be approved and we would not have to watch the country suffer as key departments were left leaderless.  Maybe President Trump could even fill the vacancy in the Supreme Court in this way.

The truth is that the Democrats should not be allowed to get away with this childish behavior.