THE SLEDGEHAMMER CREWNovember 22, 2024
What do you say when someone forces you to revise your Friday post on Thursday: Hallelujah!
Yesterday, Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration for Attorney General. (Donald Trump then picked former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.) The FBI had investigated Gaetz for sex with a minor but didn’t prosecute. The House Ethics Committee stopped investigating when Trump announced Gaetz, who immediately resigned from Congress. The report was hacked. More information came out. Gaetz said he didn’t want to be a “distraction.” Translation: No chance.
Trump’s recent announcement of nominees for cabinet and cabinet-level posts, Gaetz leading the way, offered the American people a sledgehammer crew. Mission: Break everything in sight, and don’t worry about putting stuff back together. You wouldn’t know how.
Gaetz, sadly, isn’t the end of the story.
Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense? The Monterey, California, police investigated an alleged 2017 sexual assault on a woman in a hotel but filed no charges. In 2020, Hegseth entered a settlement agreement to forestall a legal battle that could cost him his weekend anchor job on Fox News. More details are emerging.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services? He claims, without evidence, that Covid and other vaccines lead to autism and other bad health outcomes. So what if the United States experiences a serious uptick in measles, mumps and polio?
Former Hawaii representative Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence? She has a sweet spot for Vladimir Putin and Syria’s brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad. America needs friends.
Every President-elect has the right to choose his (and someday, her) cabinet. The President-elect often has close personal relationships with nominees. In 1960, John F. Kennedy chose his brother Robert, father of RFK Jr., as his Attorney General. Nepotism? Hell, yes. The Senate confirmed the pick.
Cabinet-level nominees need not reflect all Americans’ stances on the issues—or the President’s. Many of Trump’s 2017 cabinet picks blunted Trump’s worst instincts. “You’re fired!” transitioned from “The Apprentice” to the White House.
But welcome to 2024.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote in “The Sabbath,” “Nothing is more useful than power, nothing more frightful.” A new President must do more than select loyal minions. Every President owes the American people—all the people—nominees with proven competence.
Re Gaetz, politifact.com reported that he, “jumped into politics in his late 20s, and his legal résumé includes less than a decade of private practice.” Not Trump’s concern. Pete Hegseth is a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, he’s a major in the Individual Ready Reserve. Terrific. But he lacks the organizational and strategic experience possessed by even a one-star general.
RFK Jr. has no healthcare or organizational experience. Tulsi Gabbard, also a veteran, lacks the in-depth experience required to accurately brief and advise the president on intelligence matters.
Last weekend, “Saturday Night Live” skewered Trump’s nominees. Had they done so before the announcements, would Trump have rethought things? No. But it might have alerted the American people, and the U.S. Senate, that Trump’s crowing “I am your retribution” was more than campaign jawing.
Hopefully, enough Senators will demand to exercise their Constitutional duty to advise and consent regarding the remaining nominations. Perhaps a few sledgehammer crew nominations may wreck themselves.
Still, SNL will have plentiful material.
Please pass on this post. And have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
The post will take next week off and return December 6.
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