I attended public schools. My son attends a public school. I think public schools are important. For these reasons, I’d oppose making Betsy DeVos the Secretary of Education for purely policy reasons. But she’s witless and incompetent, and that’s presumably why her nomination is opposed by Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. The rumor is that she’s transparently awful enough that every Democratic senator will oppose her when a vote comes up on the full floor of the Senate.
If you do some basic math, the 48 senators who caucus with the Democrats plus the two dissenting Republican senators adds up to fifty. In the case of a 50-50 tie, Vice-President Mike Pence could cast a tie-breaking vote and DeVos would still be confirmed. However, that depends on Collins and Murkowski being the only dissenters. It also depends on the vote of Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III of Alabama.
As a result, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell now needs to schedule the DeVos vote before he schedules the vote to confirm Sessions as our new Attorney General. Once Sessions is confirmed, he will no longer be a senator and therefore the split in the Senate would be reduced from a 52-48 to a 51-48 majority. In that case, DeVos would lose the vote 49-50 rather than there being a tie that Pence could break.
Of course, once Sessions’s seat comes open, a temporary replacement will be announced by the Republican governor of Alabama. States have different rules for filling Senate vacancies, but Alabama does allow the governor to appoint an “interim appointee.” However, the state also requires a Special Election.
A Special Election must be held on such a day as the governor may direct, unless vacancy occurs between 2 and 4 months before the next regularly-scheduled general election, in which case it is held at that election. If vacancy occurs within 60 days of the next regularly-scheduled general election, a special election must be held on the first Tuesday after 60 days have elapsed since the vacancy occurred.
Assuming Sessions is confirmed, the vacancy will occur more than 2 to 4 months before the next general election. I take the above language to mean that the governor must promptly schedule a special election to fill the seat and that there must be at least 60 days for people to campaign. So, whoever serves as the interim senator may have a very brief tenure. Presumably, they’d be willing to vote for DeVos, but I guess that isn’t completely assured.
I don’t think there will much delay in the announcement of an interim replacement for Sessions, but it could take a few days.
It doesn’t seem right for Sessions to stick around in the Senate only to cast a vote for DeVos, but that’s probably what will now happen. He’ll vote for her and then expect the Senate to vote for him.
I won’t say that DeVos’s confirmation is in peril, but it is now something less than assured.
Yeah, she was embarrassing.
But is pure stupid less effective than smart? There are some privatization sharpies out there for sure.
So I am torn. She is a terrible spokesperson for the issue, but I guess a hell of a fundraiser.
Yeah, it seems that she got chosen as the patsy for a lot of influential people. I think I share a similar dread: she’s obviously not competent for the post, but what if (she gets blocked and) the next nominee is?
My biggest question regarding Devos getting the nod is : if she gets confirmed, why do we bother having hearings in the first place? I can’t imagine anyone bombing a confirmation hearing or demonstrating a worse understanding of the subject matter than Devos did. If she’s confirmed, can we all just agree that the Senate can spend time on more important things than having useless hearings?
BTW, I am saying this with tongue planted firmly in cheek, I do understand the value of getting nominees on the record, under oath saying stupid / illegal / contradictory things.
Remember, Reid punked W with Harriet Myers.
What do you mean? Reid didn’t punk anyone. Bush got what he wanted anyway. A nutter on the court.
Well, if the Senate confirms DeVos, perhaps the less time the Senate spends working on important things, the better.
Fair point.
It’s a hopeful sign, but you wonder if the Republicans have already gamed this out to at least some degree (in other words, maybe the Republicans know that they won’t lose any more votes and so are allowing Murkowski and Collins to cover their asses back home).
One more. Surely there’s at least one more Republican Senator that isn’t a half brain-dead religious wacko.
You’d think Lamar Alexander, who actually served as Secretary of Education, would have enough respect for the position to vote no.
Not a fan/friend of public education; so, Alexander isn’t a good think.
Corker might be a better think.
There’s man that’s been on the public dole almost his entire life – McCain
Yeah, my hope was to find one R senator w/blue demographics (or trending that way) who is up in 2018. This is the entire list of R senators up in 2018:
Jeff Flake, AZ
Roger Wicker, MS
Deb Fischer, NE
Dean Heller, NV
Bob Corker, TN
Ted Cruz, TX
Orrin Hatch, UT
John Barrasso, WY
If we just went by trends in demographics, maybe Flake in AZ or Heller in NV would make a good target to lean on. I am otherwise too ignorant of their politics to make any further guesses.
I never went to public schools, it’s still pretty easy to find reasons to oppose DeVos. That said I have zero confidence that Murowski and Collins will vote against her. They’re all talk, always have been. But I basically agree with the post.
What part of “across the board, total opposition to everything” do Democrats not understand? (I realize I’m changing the subject slightly, but it’s obviously relevant). They keep getting kicked in the face and spat upon, over and over, and they keep getting back up and trying to shake hands.
Gee, total war. Specifically and precisely, what do you suggest that the Democrats do?
What specifically should be done? I don’t mean “get another Republican”, either. How exactly is one to be persuaded? Collins is on the left side of the R base.
I cannot think of another R senator to be getable. That person must be up for election, running in 2018.
There is EXACTLY one R senator running in a D state in 2018 – Dean Heller in Nevada. The rest are running in R states, and are probably safe.
What SPECIFICALLY could be used to persuade Mr. Heller to vote against her?
It’s so easy to say “total war”. Democrats have NOTHING at this point.
Collins is on the left side of the R base.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!
Well, she is. The left side of the R base is still pretty R. I didn’t say she was the second coming of Leon Trotsky.
There is all of this energy right now to stop the Republicans.
But we really don’t have anything more than the filibuster to stop them on anything.
I worry when people realize this that this energy is going to dissipate.
The energy will not dissipate.
It didn’t dissipate for the TEA Party until they gained power and influenced policy.
We are outraged. We are organizing. We will eventually turn the page on this sorry chapter. We will suffer losses. We will win as often as we can. We’re in it for the long haul. We have been careless. We see where that’s gotten us.
Yes, the D have the filibuster. What they had better focus on is 2018.
Because this alt-left shit we are seeing may cost them the filibuster-wall.
2018 – there are 5-6 D seats which are VERY shaky (Manchin, McKaskill, Heitkamp, Donnaly, Tester). I think at least 3 of those will be gone. There are couple in “blue wall” states that are no longer blue that could easily be in big trouble (Baldwin, Stabenow).
D need to lose under 8. I have 7 above that are concerning. Another R wave, the filibuster is gone, and SS, Medicare, and Medicaid go with it.
So continue with the alt-left shit. If Ds lose the filibuster, we really are going back to 1928.
Do we really have to name the,democrats who will vote for this turd?
On this one, apparently not. Supposedly they’re all going to be no. IMO that indicates they think she’s stoppable. If they can’t get 3 Republicans to vote “no” it doesn’t matter how they vote, so whether they let a few Dems cross the aisle is purely a PR issue. Only if there’s a chance of actually blocking the nomination does unanimity matter.
I know the strategy. Spin it as you will but crossing over displays a weakness they will try to exploit.