Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 40 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
I Really Wasn’t Sure About Matt Gaetz
Then Andy McCarthy weighed in. And now I can’t wait.
McCarthy’s piece (sometimes behind a paywall) is entitled “On Trump’s Foolish, Futile Matt Gaetz AG Nomination”. Now, for many that will be enough: if McCarthy is against, being for can’t be too wrong. But let’s look at the article anyway.
He begins with the disingenuous “I’m not going to mention these allegations I’ve just mentioned,” so I won’t. McCarthy’s substantive charge is that:
[Gaetz] took the constitutional-law (sic) position that the vice president had the authority to … remand the votes back to the states, despite their certification … No one who took such a position is qualified to be attorney general of the United States.
I am about as far from being a constitutional law expert as one could find, so take this with all the appropriate salt, but… that’s it? The Electoral Count Act of 1877 was so unclear on procedure that it was subsequently significantly amended in 2022. The situation regarding the legitimacy of electors certified by states that held elections contrary to Federal laws and their own laws was sufficiently unclear to prompt a Supreme Court case with 18 states on one side and 20 on the other. (The Supremes dismissed the case — for lack of standing.) Am I saying Gaetz’s position was correct? No. But it was clearly sufficiently plausible not to be the sort of position no qualified lawyer could hold.
But, of course, McCarthy’s objection is not to the legal basis for the position. Indeed, he says “Matt Gaetz has a lot of political talent, and a lot of lawyer talent.” McCarthy’s real objection is that Gaetz dared to challenge McCarthy’s true North Star – not the Constitution, not justice, not the good of the country, but The System. “Gaetz,” McCarthy writes, “dabbled in conspiracy theories that the Capitol riot had been led by left-wing radicals … and that it may have been an inside job.” How dare he so dabble! No one must question The Narrative! In this, as in so much, the anti-Trump commentariat misses — deliberately or otherwise — the playful nature of modern political discourse.
McCarthy concedes that “[t]he Justice Department has huge problems that have to be addressed.” But, in his view, “Trump needs a strong, experienced hand who is widely respected for his or her legal acumen and bureaucratic know-how — specifically in the Justice Department.” Because we all know there’s nothing like a Washington insider to get things done, challenge the status quo and undo a generation of injustice. This is the thinking that had the “serious adults” nodding wisely at Merrick Garland’s appointment.
Surely even the National Review can do better than this. I guess they just don’t want to.
In any event, win, lose or draw, Mr. Gaetz looks like just the chap to shake things up a bit. All power to him. (At least in the interim, since the Republican Senate has already set out its stall as the Disloyal Opposition.)
Published in General
John Bolton also opposes which made me look very favorably on the Gaetz appointment.
Even still, that law has no teeth. The Constitution says,
The law you mention is attempting to codify the “Rules of its Proceedings” which Congress has plenary power to do for themselves.
Thing is, the Republicans can get enough Democrats to vote to expel a Republican even if only a small portion of Republicans agree. But the reverse would not happen.
Other than Gaetz, who resigned immediately, the others will not leave their office until they are confirmed. The issue there will be that people like Stefanick will get replaced by another Republican, most likely, but there will be a gap of ~90 days.
From Special election coming to New York’s 21st Congressional District
So, when she is confirmed, and resigns, the Governor has 10 days to call the election and then another 80 days before it has to happen, so 90 days of a vacancy (in New York). For the Florida vacancies (Gaetz, and Mike Waltz) the process takes about 8 weeks and they could, in theory, get the people in place by early January. I doubt that Waltz will resign until he is confirmed though).
This is important to note. Both Hewitt and A. McCarthy are playing by old rules, much like the GOP did in 20 and 22 when the Dems won elections. When the GOP started to play by the same rules, they started to win again. I respect the experience and intelligence of both men, but they are fighting not just the last war, but the war before last.
And you know that there are plenty of Republicans who are mad at Gaetz for making Kevin McCarthy accept terms that held him to the standards that existed prior to Nancy Pelosi’s second speakership. Then Gaetz actually held him to those terms that McCarthy agreed to. Yes, it was bad politics, but allowing the Speaker to be unchecked was worse in many ways.
At this point, John Bolton has achieved near-perfection as a negative barometer.
I don’t think that, aside from you, many people confuse the term “TDS” with a psychiatric diagnosis. To say this sounds like Stalinist misuse of psychiatry is inapt and inappropriate.
Then please give me your alternative understanding of “You should not trust the opinions of deranged people.”
Or do words simply have no meaning anymore?
“Deranged” being shorthand for people made irrational by their hatred of Donald Trump, not a psychiatric diagnosis.
But you knew that already.
So, I’m correct. Words are absolutely meaningless.
Only to someone whose mind, in response to a statement like “That chap’s got a severe case of TDS”, careens into a “Soooo, you want him thrown into a psych ward, just like Stalin did, eh?” rhetorical ditch.
Good grief.
Panhandle? Even more Republican.
No, McCarthy is deflecting. How did Garland ever get confirmed and be allowed to serve? Did I miss all those McCarthy articles demanding the Impeachment and removal of Garland for impeachable offenses? The Republican House tried, but McCarthy was no piilar of strength supporting those efforts. And what about Eric ‘wingman’ Holder, running guns to the Mexican cartels? McCarthy is being completely disingenuous and forgetting about the last 8 years, and the complete weaponization of doj by Dems.
What about Pence’s affirmation to Trump that Flynn lied to him, resulting both in Flynn’s removal and criminal conviction for a crime he never committed. And we are supposed to credit Pence for Jan 6 without question when there was vast lawbreaking by several States in the election. McCarthy remains completely off base.
I guess it depends on whether the goal is to make a good choice or whether it is merely to find someone better than some bad choice you can point to. Vance is making the case for fairness; McCarthy is making the case for competence.
The Editors of the National Review have spoken: “The Senate Should Reject Matt Gaetz“. (No new arguments are made, in case you wondered.)
How could any person of good conscience do anything other than wholeheartedly support him, now?
Haven’t we had enough of “It’s not the nature of the evidence that matters, it’s the seriousness of the charges?”
What charges? They were dropped… No charges remain.
It’s the media and Democrats (but I repeat myself) doing the “charging.”
But I should have used “accusations” which is really all they are.