Stop Being Stupid

Matt Gaetz was never getting confirmed. I know this because I know the law and I know enough Republican Senators that I knew at least twelve were either going to explicitly vote no or work to sabotage Gaetz to ensure enough no votes would hold. Likewise, the Federal Vacancies Reform Act or forcing the Senate into recess would not work.

But Gaetz was also who Trump wanted. If you really think Matt Gaetz was a fourth-dimensional chess pick for *checks notes* Pam Bondi, you’re an easily manipulated fool. Whether you claim he was cover for Bondi, Gabbard, Kennedy, or some other grand strategic play, Gaetz would not have bailed less than a week after his nomination, when confirmation hearings will not even start until January.

Just as there are leg humpers on the right who have to explain and add conjecture on everything based on the idea that Donald Trump is the smartest person to ever walk the planet, there are easily manipulated fools on the left who, driven by their contempt of Trump and the right, cannot see straight.

Dahlia Lithwick is one of them.

“The Senate Will Absolutely Confirm Matt Gaetz,” blared her headline on November 15th, with the subtitle, “If you think these Republicans are going to stand up to Donald Trump, you have not been paying attention.”

Actually, I have been paying attention.

So I know that one-third of the United States Senate just got re-elected pushing their re-elections to well past Donald Trump’s time in office. Another third won’t be re-elected for four more years — well past time for them to rebuild any bridges they might burn at the start of this term. And a third are up in two years and that third includes Mitch McConnell and Susan Collins. Do you really think they care?

The idea that the Senate will always placate Trump is as much Trump Derangement Syndrome as the idea that Gaetz was a brilliant distraction to ease Pam Bondi into the office.

People are not thinking anymore. They are emoting based on their team. It’s always the refs when your team loses, never ever your team even when Carson Beck keeps throwing interceptions…errrr…when Trump picks someone like Gaetz. The emotional angst of turning politics into team sports is making people stupid.

But you know who is smart? Pam Bondi. That’s a terrific pick.

The Silence of the Lambs

The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention has come out strongly arguing the Trump Administration must support pro-life policies through the Department of Health and Human Services. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has also called for various pro-life policies.

“[I]n order to even get to the baseline, there is much that must be undone from the Biden-Harris regime, which worked tirelessly to promote abortion in every nook and cranny of the federal government,” the organization wrote in a memo to the Trump Team.

But what is remarkable is how no pro-life organization has explicitly said that having a pro-abortion advocate in charge of one-quarter of the federal budget is unacceptable and Kennedy should be rejected.

Instead, their compromise seems to be, at best, to put Roger Severino in a key position under Kennedy. Roger should be the Secretary of HHS.

That the pro-life community is too timid to stand up to a Kennedy appointment strongly suggests they think they can’t win the fight and don’t want to be exposed as paper tigers.

What good is the pro-life community if they are not brave enough and bold enough to fight against the nomination of a man in a Republican Administration whose antics led to his wife’s suicide and who supports abortion till birth when that man would control one-quarter of the federal budget? That doesn’t even get into his support for gun control and the gun groups out there.

Abortion is not just a state issue when HHS controls a quarter of the federal budget and oversees a vast array of healthcare and drug decisions.

Dobbs may have ended Roe and Casey, but it also clearly ended the effectiveness of the pro-life community in fighting bad nominees. If you can’t muster the fight against Kennedy, expect worse picks after him, not better, because you’re setting yourselves up to be seen as pushovers.

The better play is to vocally oppose Kennedy so the incoming administration understands you will fight. Every fight will slow down an administration that only has two years to accomplish its agenda before lame-duck status sets in. Republicans would like to hold the Senate in two years. A revolt from the pro-life community would give them more heartburn than rejecting a progressive Democrat at HHS.

The silence and lack of fight is deafening.

Miscellanea

You’ve seen the Jaguar ad. It is what happens when Teletubbies grow up to be serial killers.

Now see one of the most intriguing car commercials I have ever seen. Guillaume Huin is the senior marketing director of McDonalds and put a link to it on Twitter.

This commercial defies everything — length, production, in your face marketing, etc. It really is one of the best ads I’ve ever seen. It is also very, very explicitly pro-life. Meet the new Volvo.

And yes, the ad is that good — done by the cinematographer for Interstellar and Oppenheimer.