It’s telling that Sam Brownback needed the tie-breaking vote of the vice-president in order to be confirmed to his new position as ambassador for international religious freedom. The Kansas governor couldn’t muster a single Democratic vote despite serving in Congress for sixteen years, including more than fourteen in the U.S. Senate. His difficulties were noticed back home:
In Topeka, some lawmakers reacted with surprise that Brownback’s cloture vote had become a nail-biter.
“He had been there with that group for years and you would have thought he would have had more of a broad base unless it’s turned over that much in six or eight years,” state Sen. John Skubal, R-Overland Park, said.
The Republican legislature in Kansas felt compelled to rescind Brownback’s notorious tax cuts last year after they failed to create the money he promised and left a smoking crater of a budget for the lawmakers to navigate. That’s probably why Brownback cites his anti-abortion policies as his greatest legacy from two terms in office. He also, famously, did away with anti-discrimination protections for LGBT state employees, so he’s compiled a record on looking out for oppressed minorities. It’s not a good record, but it’s a record.
…Brownback will oversee the country’s advocacy for religious minorities in areas of religious conflict and oppression around the globe. The position, which is based in Washington, D.C., was established in 1998.
Since Chris Christie has already left office, Brownback is the most unpopular governor in the country. When he hands over the reins later today to Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, a lot of Kansans, including Republicans, will be celebrating.
That doesn’t bode well for Brownback’s prospects as an ambassador for our country or for the world’s religiously oppressed people. So it goes.
Will he do anything to help probably the most religiously oppressed group in the world right now, the Rohingya?
I’m betting no.
P.S. Is there a way to limit post titles to 47 chars so commenters can reply without editing the comment title? Or relax the limit on comment titles?
One would hope that Kansans would learn a lesson from this fiasco but I’m not holding my breath.
Brownback’s record in the US Senate was utterly undistinguished. He was regarded as a largely one-issue senator. Trump (or actually his radical advisers since he knows nothing about anything) continue to propose the worst people for administrative positions.
At this point the worst are the only people that will work for him. At the beginning you could imagine someone decent taking a job, if they could carve out an area that Trump did not care about.
Not now. He poisons everyone and everything.
.
I dunno, he started off pretty strong with “who’s the worst person you can think for this job?” and then he picked that person. DeVos? Worst. Sessions? The only way you could get worse was Kobach, who still managed to slither around the administration, requesting Hispanic sounding last names from Texas voter files. Pruitt? Worst. Kelly? We are finding out that this was also the worst, even if at the time I was relieved it wasn’t Kobach. Mulvaney? Worst. Price? Worst. He didn’t pick Bolton at State, but instead we have a clueless oil tycoon who doesn’t know wtf he’s doing. So in effect, worst; State is destroyed.
I figured Carson would be worse than he has been, but infrastructure hasn’t passed yet (if it ever does) and the admin doesn’t seem smart enough to know how to loot the contract process.
I’d say you’ve pretty well nailed it. Picking the worst person for the job is Dolt 45’s MO and has been from the get-go. Getting crazed ideologues and incompetents (or better yet, crazed ideologues who are incompetent) appointed to positions that require sober thought and a thorough understanding of their portfolios is Dolt 45’s idea of “draining the swamp.” This White House will definitely do serious damage to government institutions, much of which is likely irreparable.
Kelly in hindsight definitely among those deserving to be categorized as among the worst, given he seems into the whole ethnic cleansing thing – and folks who are eager for doing so get put on my “lowest of the low” list as a matter of general principle.
Kelly in hindsight definitely among those deserving to be categorized as among the worst, given he seems into the whole ethnic cleansing thing …
Kelly was always god awful. Just look at his record. He received a free pass from most people, especially the corporate media, because he’s military, well ex-military.
I would not be surprised if a lot of folks (myself included) had never heard of him until he darkened the White House doors. He’s definitely a household name now, and not in a good way.
Kelly oversaw Gitmo at one point. Some of us follow that. So we’d heard of him before. That’s how some of us know Kelly would be the racist piece of shit he’s showing the wider world he is.
I knew Kelly was awful. But, at the time, I was extremely worried Kobach would get the job because it fit the profile of the job for which he would be chosen — as we can see, he still wriggled his way into the DHS periphery anyway. However, Kelly isn’t just a piece of shit military guy following the presidents orders, but a true believer in ethnic cleansing. So pretty arguable that he was indeed the “worst” (Kobach prolly still the worst tho).
Yeah, he seems to love the worst people possible. I mean they make AGAG and the other C- Augustus idiots look competent in comparison.
This is very important.
Trump’s understanding of the world, of government, of economies and business and civilization, is so twisted, ignorant, corrupt and stupid that he genuinely thinks this is what it means to “drain the swamp.”
For Trump, the elements of government that we cherish as crucial, elemental — its regulatory purpose; its ideology of justice and fairness; its impartiality; its ability, at best, to elevate us all to a noble sense of common purpose beyond our vulgar appetites — are precisely what he hates about it; to him, that’s what the word “swamp” means. It’s every time some awful fat business fuck like himself has to struggle against a law or a regulation or any kind of civilized constraint, that’s “what’s wrong with Washington” — and he’s so solipsistic that he thinks that’s everyone’s complaint.
So, naturally, re-introducing the swill, the stench, the most fetid corruption — putting each agency in the hands of the very people that the agency is committed to policing and controlling, so that a mockery is made of the entire concept of democracy — to Trump, is “draining the swamp.”
He doesn’t even see this as subterfuge (as, I think, a lot of Bush’s gang did; Cheney certainly knew he had to cover his tracks, since he was pulling a series of fast ones, for, of course, “noble” reasons) or even as a contradiction…Trump is so stupid, venal and evil that he believes that “making America great” for his supporters and handing over the levers of power to the worst, most predatory business interests are the same task.
He thinks the poor, white voters who adore him want and need him to destroy the EPA, HUD, HHS…those agencies inconvenience plutocrats, which is all he cares about, so it must be all anyone cares about. (And the really scary part is, those people at his rallies cheer when he talks about his rich friends and how important their unconstrained greed is for them.)
Let’s not forget the loathsome Ryan Zinke.
Maybe that’s the intent. To prove that government is bad.
That’s been their intent since at least Ray-gun.
Right.
Wingnut welfare, Trump-style.
No staff for EPA, SEC, OSHA, etc etc, but we have an “Ambassador for International Religious Freedom”. Jebus.
Maybe he can go to the Middle East and talk to the Shia and Sunni, telling them to just respect each others religious freedom. Better yet, maybe he can try to convert them to fundamentalist Christianity. Yeah, I’d like to see Brownback tell them that Mohammed was a false prophet and a tool of the Devil. I really would … as long as I’m out of range!
Yes, and given that Sam Brownturd has devoted his entire career to promulgating American Taliban legislation directed against non-theist Americans–which would seem to be a violation of the spirit if not the letter of this law–he seems an especially preposterous and sanctimonious nominee. But obviously an unqualified incompetent, and thus par for the Trumpite course.
Because God Forbid that the odious Kansas Christianist retire after only 35+ years of squandering the public fisc in the guise of “public service”….gotta get back to DC and keep those benefits flowing! It’s a wonderful life fleecing the American stooges!
Hopefully he will last as long as this one
http://www.newsweek.com/trumps-24-year-old-pick-senior-drug-policy-job-steps-down-over-controversy-7
90433
A 24-year-old former Trump campaigner who was given a senior post in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy will step down at the end of the month, the Washington Post reported.