Patterico's Pontifications

11/13/2024

Come on, Mr. President-elect, I Was Only Joking!

Filed under: General — JVW @ 1:18 pm



[guest post by JVW]

I had a text exchange with Dana after President-elect Donald Trump nominated Florida Senator Marco Rubio to be his Secretary of State. Dana wondered why he would choose the handsome, articulate, but young (relatively speaking) Cuban-American Senator for such an august position, and I suggested it was so that Governor Ron DeSantis could appoint Matt Gaetz to the Senate to replace him.

Turns out I had completely missed the bigger picture.

Behold the newest nominee for Attorney General of the United States.

– JVW

45 Responses to “Come on, Mr. President-elect, I Was Only Joking!”

  1. If only Laura Loomer had a law degree!

    JVW (1f63ab) — 11/13/2024 @ 1:18 pm

  2. Let’s get this out of the way: Trump is clearly playing seventeenth-level chess here. He nominates Matt Gaetz knowing full well that even the GOP Senate won’t stomach him in that role (right? RIGHT????). When Gaetz is embarrassingly denied confirmation on a unanimous vote, he will then return to the House chastened and will hereafter vow to work cooperatively with his colleagues to craft reasonable conservative legislation. I’m quite sure this must be what a stable genius like Donald J. Trump had in mind here.

    JVW (1f63ab) — 11/13/2024 @ 1:22 pm

  3. As I said on the Dept. Of Government Efficiency thread, being named Attorney General is one way for Gaetz to avoid his long on-going House ethics investigation; and he does have experience with federal investigations too.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/13/2024 @ 1:27 pm

  4. Ya got me. It was always me beclowning myself, he’s not stupid Hitler.

    He’s mostivest bestivest jeenoous Hitler.

    My bad, sorry all.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a) — 11/13/2024 @ 1:30 pm

  5. Wait, nobody told me that Lauren Boebert was nominted to be the Secretary of Education!

    This new administration is starting to shape up very nicely. We must find a role for Marjorie Taylor-Green!

    JVW (1f63ab) — 11/13/2024 @ 1:33 pm

  6. “Now that we have all been cautioned in this committee hearing that the mention of Pentagon’s Immaculate Constellation program could put us on a list,” Boebert said. “Well, I already find myself on many lists, I’m sure, as I speak my mind often. So why not just keep going with it?”

    “May as well just go all out and say it. The Earth is flat, birds are government drones, and we’ve never set foot on the moon, and Joe Biden received 81 million votes in the 2020 election,” she continued.

    “So, let’s just see how many lists we could get on here today.”

    A program that is classified because it’s only tangentially related to UAPs. It has to do with part of one of those words.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a) — 11/13/2024 @ 1:40 pm

  7. And by the way, Lauren Boebert, won her most recent election (last week) by 53.7% to 42.0%. First of all, that means that about 4% of the voters chose someone other than the Democrat and Republican candidates. Imagine a Special Election to fill the seat, with motivated leftists turning out in droves and MAGA staying home because their hero isn’t on the ballot. That seat could easily flip and next thing you know, the GOP majority in the House is that much smaller.

    Mike Garcia, who replaced everybody’s favorite swinger Katie Hill, and survived two razor-close elections appears to have lost his bid for a third term in Congress. He’s an Annapolis grad and a veteran of both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and a principled conservative who didn’t try to trim his positions to appeal to flaky California voters. He’s the sort of person Donald Trump should be inviting into his cabinet, not the two MAGA morons. (I tried so hard to really like Lauren Boebert. She was my parents’ Congresswoman for a couple of terms and for a time I thought she was plucky, sassy, and no-nonsense. They I came to find out, as we all did, that nonsense was a huge part of her game after all.)

    JVW (1f63ab) — 11/13/2024 @ 1:47 pm

  8. I’ll tell you what… no matter what you think of the nominations…he’s obviously following the “Shock & Awe” strategy to drown out any criticism.

    I doubt that Hegseth will be driving the news.

    But the thing to keep in mind my fellow posters, don’t give any credence for Democrat voters on their objections. None of the picks reached the actual gutter qualities of the current administration.

    Another thing, these are political positions, advancing policies as directed by the President. It’s the direct reports to these political positions to execute the agendas.

    whembly (477db6) — 11/13/2024 @ 2:21 pm

  9. Posted this in wrong thread and repeating here…

    What was Gaetz’s practice in law before he became a politician? Anyone know?

    whembly (477db6) — 11/13/2024 @ 2:24 pm

  10. JVW (1f63ab) — 11/13/2024 @ 1:22 pm

    I’m quite sure this must be what a stable genius like Donald J. Trump had in mind here.

    John Casimatidis said on his 5pm to 6pm WABC 770 AM radio show that he thought (light bulb!) that the reason was so they would keep out of the way of House Speaker Mike Johnson.

    Guest New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin said something like that is some kicking upstairs.

    Such a political appointment hasn’t happened sine John F. Kennedy named his brother Robert F, Kennedy Attorney General.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 11/13/2024 @ 2:38 pm

  11. whembly (477db6) — 11/13/2024 @ 2:24 pm

    What was Gaetz’s practice in law before he became a politician? Anyone know?

    No, but the Washington Post says he never served as a government attorney or a judge.

    Eric Schmidt may be feeling sorry he asked not to taken into consideration.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 11/13/2024 @ 2:43 pm

  12. Does Elon Musk approve? I can’t believe he could be that stupid.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 11/13/2024 @ 2:44 pm

  13. DeSantis would never have appointed Matt Gaetz to the vacant Senate seat. Never. In addition to numerous other flaws, he (Gaetz) openly ridiculed RDS online and posted tauntingly when RDS ended his Prez campaign.

    Mitch (cb7782) — 11/13/2024 @ 3:06 pm

  14. “My honor is loyalty.” Motto of SS and trump team. This is so much fun!

    asset (3d4b83) — 11/13/2024 @ 3:39 pm

  15. > None of the picks reached the actual gutter qualities of the current administration.

    Which Biden appointee was comparable in this regard to Gaetz?

    aphrael (078a66) — 11/13/2024 @ 3:43 pm

  16. DeSantis would never have appointed Matt Gaetz to the vacant Senate seat. Never. In addition to numerous other flaws, he (Gaetz) openly ridiculed RDS online and posted tauntingly when RDS ended his Prez campaign.

    I know. It was a joke I was making to Dana.

    JVW (1f63ab) — 11/13/2024 @ 4:09 pm

  17. Maybe Alan Dershowitz wasn’t available.

    Davethulhu (b39c18) — 11/13/2024 @ 4:18 pm

  18. Oh:

    “Hope it’s wrong, but I’m hearing through the grapevine about this bonkers plan: Trump would adjourn both Houses of Congress under Article II, section 3, and then recess-appoint his Cabinet,” wrote Whelan on X Wednesday. “As predicate for Trump’s exercise of adjournment power, one House of Congress would seek other House’s consent to adjourn and be denied. So Speaker of House would need to be complicit in evisceration of Senate’s advice-and-consent role.”

    “House Speaker Mike Johnson needs to say NO to this right away,” argued Whelan.

    Dana (c5e34f) — 11/13/2024 @ 5:24 pm

  19. The folks who cheered on two years of the Weismann nonsense are shocked that Trump isn’t taking any chances.

    lloyd (929ce8) — 11/13/2024 @ 7:32 pm

  20. @15

    > None of the picks reached the actual gutter qualities of the current administration.

    Which Biden appointee was comparable in this regard to Gaetz?

    aphrael (078a66) — 11/13/2024 @ 3:43 pm

    Garland.

    Biden wanted a hatchet man, and he got it in Garland.

    I guess Trump wanted a hatchet man too…

    whembly (477db6) — 11/14/2024 @ 8:42 am

  21. As AllahNick noted, Rubio may be well-credentialed, but he’s still a Stepford Wife.

    But with all due respect, I think this misunderstands how Trump’s appointees will function in a second term. It also misunderstands Marco Rubio.

    It’s tempting to slot Rubio into the “adults in the room” niche occupied in Trump’s first term by figures like James Mattis, John Kelly, Mike Pompeo, and Nikki Haley, offering wise (i.e. conservative) counsel to an “erratic” boss to stop him from lighting the planet on fire. But I don’t think that niche exists anymore. The “adults in the room” this time won’t be there to advise, they’ll be there to take orders and provide a respectable public face for whatever gonzo schemes Trump hatches.

    As one Dispatch colleague said, Cabinet 2.0 is likely to function as a coterie of glorified press secretaries tasked with defending the actually meaningful decisions that are made in the West Wing. I suspect Rubio understands that. And that Pete Hegseth does too.
    […]
    Like Noem and Hegseth, Rubio will do what he’s told. That’s why opposition to his nomination has been muted in MAGA circles, I assume. They know he’s a Reaganite at heart and find him suspicious for that reason, but the great fear of an “adult in the room” converting Trump to his or her worldview is absent this time. It’s not Trump who’s moved toward Rubio’s foreign policy, it’s Rubio who’s moved toward his.

    Populists have spent eight years watching the senator’s hawkish impulses being slowly ground down by his partisan duty to to defend their hero in increasingly obeisant, humiliating ways. In February Rubio stooped to spinning Trump’s threat to let Russia invade NATO countries by feebly objecting that “he doesn’t talk like a traditional politician.” A toady pitiful enough to do that is pitiful enough to do anything.

    Paul Montagu (271b15) — 11/14/2024 @ 9:02 am

  22. There’s a thread on the subject of Trump getting his recess appointments. The GOP that Trump controls in both houses would be his conspirators in adjourning Congress so that Trump can get his recess appointments, which means his Senate would be abdicating Advise & Consent.

    Paul Montagu (271b15) — 11/14/2024 @ 9:06 am

  23. Yeah, not a big fan of recess appointments.

    Even though it was used in the past, doing so under current precedents would create a new precedent when the next Democrat President assumes office.

    I’m mindful of setting precedents that you don’t want the opposition to leverage in the future….

    whembly (477db6) — 11/14/2024 @ 9:17 am

  24. Exactly, whembly.
    As Harry Reid learned the hard way after nuking the filibuster, what goes around comes around.

    Paul Montagu (271b15) — 11/14/2024 @ 9:23 am

  25. NeverTrumpers upset that Trump isn’t picking people they want that will work against Trump.

    Film at 11.

    NJRob (b9d52b) — 11/14/2024 @ 10:43 am

  26. See, it’s not about being qualified, it’s not about policy, the Bund only cares about pwning the libs and frustrating actual conservatives.

    This is what winning looks like to losers, revenge and fragile immaturity. Promoting America, protecting America, all secondary to the memes.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a) — 11/14/2024 @ 11:13 am

  27. https://brusselssignal.eu/2024/11/german-police-raid-mans-home-over-tweet-mocking-greens-politician/

    Actual fascist behavior in Europe.

    NJRob (b9d52b) — 11/14/2024 @ 11:48 am

  28. Ignore our fascist, someone else may have had some overreach, so that should allow stupid Hitler to fascist it up good.

    Our fascists are just so much better. The best Fascists.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a) — 11/14/2024 @ 11:59 am

  29. Paul Montagu (271b15) — 11/14/2024 @ 9:06 am

    There’s a thread on the subject of Trump getting his recess appointments. The GOP that Trump controls in both houses would be his conspirators in adjourning Congress so that Trump can get his recess appointments, which means his Senate would be abdicating Advise & Consent.

    This already wasn’t going to happen before Trump announced his intention to nominate Matt Gaetz Attorney General, and it certainly won’t happen now.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 11/14/2024 @ 12:25 pm

  30. Matt Gaetz said he resigned from Congress on Wednesday night so that anew member could be elected (if Ron DeSantis chose the earliest possible date) by January 3.

    This does not comport with reality. In the first place resigning from Congress now only affects the term ending January 3. I don’t know what is needed to create a vacancy in the new Congress, but in any a case, if appointed, he would have no need to resign until confirmed which would be at the earliest on January 22, and if we go by the same timetable a vacancy would last until about March 13.

    Another reason has been given for his quick resignation: The House Ethics Committee was scheduled to release its report on Friday (and might even recommend his expulsion) If he is out of Congress the case is closed.

    Now a Senate confirmation risks revealing everything in the report.

    The Biden Justice Department had already decided against prosecution,

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/doj-decides-not-charge-rep-matt-gaetz-sex-trafficking-investigation-rcna70839

    but the ethics case was still open. And probably involved more allegations.

    Matt Gaetz first supported Kevin McCarthy (in the end) but later tried to get of him because, McCarthy thought, he wouldn’t shut down the ethics investigation (which he couldn’t legally do)

    Kevin McCarthy says that nobody (by which he probably means mostly most members of Congress) think Gaetz will be confirmed.

    He can afford to lose maybe 5 Republican Senators and 4 or so have told reporters anonymously I think, that they won’t vote to confirm him. I think Lisa Murkowski came out openly against his confirmation

    https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-republicans-are-saying-about-matt-gaetz-trumps-pick-for-attorney-general

    … SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska:

    “I do not see him as a serious candidate. The president is free to nominate whoever he may wish. Our constitutional role in nominations is to provide advice. … I don’t know that any of my Senate colleagues advise that Matt Gaetz name should go up, but it’s what (Trump) apparently has advanced. But, then our role is to determine the consent end of it. Do we give our consent or do we not?”

    Well, not quite a NAY vote yet.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 11/14/2024 @ 12:48 pm

  31. “NeverTrumpers upset that Trump isn’t picking people they want that will work against Trump.”

    Come on Rob, mount a defense of Congressman Chomo’s appointment.

    Here, I’ll help: “He’s very knowledgeable about age-of-consent laws”

    Davethulhu (b39c18) — 11/14/2024 @ 1:11 pm

  32. I’ll defend it.

    He’ll do no worse than Garland or even Eric “Congressional Contempt” Holder.

    I will posit that he’s a lightning rod and has serious baggage that may jeopardize his nomination. But it’s unquestionable that he’d be able to do the job.

    whembly (477db6) — 11/14/2024 @ 1:29 pm

  33. Trump picks Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services
    ……….
    The source said Kennedy accepted the offer Thursday, and multiple sources told CNN that Trump could announce the choice later in the day. Kennedy has been in Palm Beach for several days following the election.
    ……….
    The move is a notable one given that only days before the election, Trump’s transition co-chair Howard Lutnick told CNN that Kennedy was “not getting a job for HHS.”

    “He would not be in charge of HHS?” he was asked on “The Source with Kaitlan Collins.”

    “No,” Lutnick said, “of course not.”
    ………..

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/14/2024 @ 1:31 pm

  34. House Ethics chair reiterates he does not plan to release Gaetz report

    Report leaked 5,4,3,2,1…..

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/14/2024 @ 1:35 pm

  35. Re: Gaetz and RFKJr. nominations:

    Both feel like they are designed to poke a stick into the eyes of Republican Senators and his validate his voters support. I’m sure I’m wrong, but I find it hard to believe that there aren’t a few Senators that will sink these selections.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/14/2024 @ 1:41 pm

  36. They cannot do any worse to the nation than Obama or Biden’s partisan picks.

    Carry on.

    NJRob (b9d52b) — 11/14/2024 @ 1:48 pm

  37. “He’ll do no worse than Garland or even Eric “Congressional Contempt” Holder.”

    A ringing endorsement.

    Davethulhu (b39c18) — 11/14/2024 @ 1:54 pm

  38. “They cannot do any worse to the nation than Obama or Biden’s partisan picks.”

    This is absolutely the kind of qualification you want to see in your party’s nominees.

    Davethulhu (b39c18) — 11/14/2024 @ 1:57 pm

  39. Sure. Go with that buddy.

    👍

    whembly (477db6) — 11/14/2024 @ 2:01 pm

  40. Appointing Gaetz shows Trump has no respect for the law, the legal process, or mainstream lawyers. I believe his opinion is shared by most people, including here.

    DRJ (df5ffc) — 11/14/2024 @ 2:25 pm

  41. Ann Coulter has a law degree (U Michigan) and has worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee and handled crime and immigration issues for Senator Spencer Abraham of Michigan and helped craft legislation designed to expedite the deportation of aliens convicted of felonies.

    I submit she is FAR more qualified than Matt Gaetz, and a LOT smarter, too.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 11/14/2024 @ 2:37 pm

  42. Most lawyers are more qualified but Trump needs someone he trusts to do his bidding. If the file on Gaetz is as compromised as the reports suggest …

    DRJ (df5ffc) — 11/14/2024 @ 2:41 pm

  43. Report leaked 5,4,3,2,1…..

    By Tuesday

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 11/14/2024 @ 4:32 pm

  44. Report leaked 5,4,3,2,1…..

    By Tuesday

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 11/14/2024 @ 4:32 pm

    The drip drip has just begun:

    The woman who was at the center of a yearslong Justice Department investigation into sex trafficking allegations surrounding Rep. Matt Gaetz testified to the House Ethics Committee that the now-former Florida congressman had sex with her when she was 17 years old, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.
    ………..
    Over the summer, the House Ethics Committee subpoenaed the woman at the center of the probe — who is now in her 20s — and she sat for multiple days of testimony where she testified to the committee that Gaetz had sex with her when she was a minor in high school, sources close to the investigation said.
    ………
    The woman’s allegation regarding Gaetz became part of the investigation following claims by (former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg), a former friend of Gaetz who is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence after reaching a deal with investigators in May 2021 in which he pleaded guilty to multiple federal crimes, including sex trafficking of the woman when she was a minor and introducing her to other “adult men” who also had sex with her when she was underage.

    According to Greenberg’s plea deal, the woman, who ABC News is not identifying, met Greenberg online in 2017 and began meeting him in hotels and houses in the Middle District of Florida, where he “introduced the Minor to other adult men, who engaged in commercial sex acts with the Minor in the Middle District of Florida,” court documents said.
    ………
    Over the course of its investigation, the House Ethics Committee conducted interviews with at least half a dozen women who allegedly attended parties where the Florida congressman was also present, and who were paid by Greenberg, Gaetz’s one-time close friend, sources told ABC News. Some of the witnesses had been subpoenaed by the committee, while others agreed to cooperate, according to the sources.
    ……….
    The committee has also obtained a sworn written statement by Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend where she lists the Florida congressman as one of the attendees at a party in July 2017 where dugs were present and which was attended by the woman who Gaetz allegedly had sex with when she was a minor, sources said.
    ……….
    As ABC News previously reported, one woman who said she attended a party with the Gaetz in 2017, who ABC News is not identifying, told the committee that a payment from Gaetz was for sex, multiple sources told ABC News. Others have said they were paid to attend parties they said Gaetz also attended, and that those parties included drugs and sex, the sources said.

    Gaetz has long denied all of the allegations, including paying for sex, and previously dismissed them by claiming “someone is trying to recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward.”
    …………

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/14/2024 @ 5:31 pm

  45. DRJ (df5ffc) — 11/14/2024 @ 2:41 pm

    Most lawyers are more qualified but Trump needs someone he trusts to do his bidding.

    That’s his nominee for deputy attorney General, his lawyer Todd Blanche. At least he trusts him to know what he is doing.

    Maybe it was Todd Blanche who suggested these appointments, and that he be outranked by a figurehead/

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 11/14/2024 @ 7:17 pm

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