NATIONAL REVIEW
NOV 15, 2024 |
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◼ Matt Gaetz needs 51 votes, but he can't even count past 17.
◼ President-elect Trump nominated his prominent toady, Representative Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.), to be his attorney general. Gaetz resigned from the House, apparently to force the shutdown of an ethics investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, obstruction, and other unsavory conduct. We understand Trump's instincts here. During his first term, his own Department of Justice failed to rein in Obama-era holdovers, mainly at the FBI, who publicly intimated that he was a clandestine agent of Russia based on bogus evidence supplied by Trump's political opponents. Then, his successor's administration indicted him twice. Trump is thus highly resentful and suspicious of politicized law enforcement. But he should have no trouble finding a skilled lawyer who is appropriately loyal and scrupulously lawful. Matt Gaetz is not that lawyer. Fresh out of law school, he worked briefly at a small Florida firm before diving into electoral politics. That would not necessarily be disqualifying if Gaetz had exhibited high levels of legal acumen and judgment during his 14 years in legislatures. He has not. He was a principal supporter of Trump's disgraceful scheme to reverse his loss to President Biden. After January 6, 2021, Gaetz peddled conspiracy theories that the Capitol riot had been covertly led by left-wing radicals rather than Trump supporters. When that didn't fly, he decided that the violence, in which scores of police were injured, might have been an inside job orchestrated by the FBI. His most famous antic was the reckless, vengeful motion to oust then-speaker Kevin McCarthy from his post, plunging the House into weeks of chaos. Gaetz should withdraw if he truly wants to avoid an intense public examination of the subject matter of the ethics investigation. Otherwise, the Senate must do its constitutional duty and deny consent to an unworthy nominee.
◼ Trump also tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of health and human services. A lot of attention focuses on his opposition to vaccines and other oddball stances. But do not lose sight of the fact that HHS is a vast bureaucracy that controls more than one-fourth of the federal budget, through its running of Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare (which gave sweeping regulatory powers to the secretary). The position would also give him control over the FDA, CDC, and NIH. It is through HHS that Republican presidents influence abortion policy, but RFK Jr. earlier this year defended the right to "full-term abortion." After backtracking, he still said he supported abortion until "viability." HHS would also be the agency through which Republicans could try to loosen Obamacare regulations, but in Kennedy, Trump has named somebody who is in favor of single-payer health care. Again: The Constitution gives the Senate its "advice and consent" role for a reason.
◼ After Democrats' thoroughly dispiriting Election Day, Representative Seth Moulton (D., Mass.) said: "I have two little girls, I don't want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I'm supposed to be afraid to say that." The backlash from Moulton's fellow Democrats came fast and furious. Massachusetts governor Maura Healey accused Moulton of playing "politics with people, particularly young people and folks who are vulnerable." In Moulton's hometown of Salem, Mayor Dominick Pangallo and the school committee jointly said Moulton's comments "do not reflect our values." Salem city councilman Kyle Davis demanded Moulton's resignation. Moulton stuck to his guns. "Sadly, too many fellow Democrats feel like there isn't a place within our party for them to say certain things out loud -- even when it's a reasonable, majority opinion in our country."
◼ Republicans elected Senator John Thune of South Dakota, who began his Senate career in 2004 by unseating majority leader Tom Daschle, as their next majority leader. It was no great surprise. Trump allies in media and Congress promoted Rick Scott as a supposed anti-establishment alternative and a break from the stewardship of Senator Mitch McConnell, but Scott was eliminated after winning only 13 votes on the first ballot. Thune then edged out Senator John Cornyn, 29–24. Thune will have some big shoes to fill after McConnell's run as leader. He has promised a more open process than McConnell ran. In remarks after his victory, Thune emphasized the need to support Trump agenda items such as economic deregulation, achieving "energy dominance," and providing the tools necessary to secure the border. Reassuringly to those of us who believe in the constitutional primacy of the legislative branch, Thune emphasized the Senate's role as an independent body. He said there would not be any changes to filibuster rules and did not embrace a blank-check approach to nominations via recess appointments. The scale of his challenge in bridging the gulf between his conference and Trump was dramatized by the nomination of Matt Gaetz as attorney general just hours after the vote, a choice that should provoke Republican defections. We wish him the best.
◼ Democrats passed the so-called Inflation Reduction Act through budget reconciliation, without a single Republican vote. Republicans can repeal it without a single Democratic vote, also through budget reconciliation. And they should. The law expanded the IRS, implemented drug price controls that have slowed innovation, raised prices and reduced options for Medicare Part D, and created an entire new subsector of the economy based on government handouts for green energy. Democrats passed it based on lies: first, that its title was its purpose, and second, that it would reduce the deficit. It never had anything to do with inflation, and the Biden administration has interpreted parts of the law so that it will cost more than three times what Democrats promised when it was passed. Because most of the IRA money hasn't gone out yet, repealing it now will allow Republicans to rack up "savings" for budget-scoring purposes without actually having to take stuff away from people—baby steps!—and it will prevent a bevy of future Solyndras. Think of it as a Biden Legacy Reduction Act. |
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◼ Trump mimics not named Trump continued to show poorly even in a strong Republican year. Joe Kent served his country honorably in the Special Forces and tragically lost his wife, a U.S. Navy sailor, to a suicide bomber in Syria. He has since embraced the worst elements of MAGA, such as 2020 election denial and flirtations with the racist fringe. He successfully primaried the pro-life Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, who voted to impeach Trump, in 2022, and then narrowly lost to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in Washington's third district. Undaunted, he announced another campaign shortly after losing but was defeated again by Gluesenkamp Perez. Kari Lake, a former Phoenix-area TV anchor, hugged Trump as closely as possible in her 2022 campaign for Arizona governor. She told McCain Republicans that she did not want their votes, then lost narrowly to then–secretary of state Katie Hobbs. Easily winning the Republican Senate primary this year, Lake has now lost to progressive Arizona congressman Ruben Gallego, even as Trump won the state. The poor records of Kent and Lake indicate not simply that they are unsuited for electoral politics. It also suggests that Trump's brand does not always extend beyond himself.
◼ There is a lot to like about Donald Trump's appointees to top-level national-security posts. Marco Rubio is an inspired choice to lead the State Department and tamp down Foggy Bottom's most accommodationist impulses. John Ratcliffe will be a sound and experienced hand at the CIA. There's no better training for life at the United Nations than being surrounded by people who are wrong and confident in their wrongness, which is why Elise Stefanik's role in Congress sets her up for success at the U.S. mission to Turtle Bay. These like minds are likely to come into conflict, however, with Donald Trump's choice to serve as director of national intelligence: Tulsi Gabbard. A Democrat until last month, Gabbard reliably defaults to the notion that America is a malignant actor abroad. She has lent credence to dubious narratives absolving noxious regimes, such as those that reign over Russia and Syria, of responsibility for their crimes against human dignity and for attacks on U.S. interests. She even followed in Nancy Pelosi's footsteps by traveling to Damascus to be used as a prop by the anti-American regime of Bashar al-Assad. Trump wants to rein in the intelligence services he believes waylaid his first term. But he may soon find that his desire to mete out vengeance waylays his second term, too. |
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◼ Jim Justice, the outgoing West Virginia governor newly elected to the Senate, will have to work without man's best friend. His bulldog Babydog has become his signature sidekick, accompanying him in his speech to the Republican National Convention this summer. Justice even held her aloft, hindquarters forward, as a gesture in a state-of-the-state address to the West Virginia legislature. But just as the Senate forced John Fetterman to ditch his hoodies and wear a suit when taking the floor, Justice's orientation to the U.S. Senate involved informing him that dogs are not permitted on the floor unless they are necessary for service and cleared for allergic reactions among Justice's colleagues. If the rules of decorum in Congress seem stuffy and anachronistic, they were hard-won. The 19th century saw a near-deadly assault on the Senate floor. Many members of both houses carried guns into it and spit tobacco there. When Henry Clay became speaker of the House in 1811, one of his first acts was to ban from the House floor the pack of hunting dogs belonging to the flamboyant John Randolph. Winning that fight was a first step toward establishing the power of the speakership, which had been an insignificant, ministerial office. If the case of the dog on the Senate floor seems curious, it is the absence of the dog that is significant.
◼ A lot of people wasted a lot of breath about how vote tallies on Election Night showed (for Democrat conspiracists) that something was fishy about Trump's win or (for Republican ones) that Biden had stolen the 2020 election. In both cases, the supposed evidence was that Harris 2024 had fallen so fall short of the vote total for Biden 2020. The apparent discrepancy was largely due to the fact that California, where lots of voters live, had hardly reported any of its votes at that point. Now that more votes are in, the difference looks like an ordinary shift in the electorate, which is what this election was. The math-challenged Republicans do not have any plausible theory for how the Democrats, while not holding the White House, stole an election and then, while holding it, lost every battleground state. The simplest explanation for the available evidence? Biden won in 2020 and Trump won in 2024.
◼ "We failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War II, and last night we failed again," King Willem-Alexander lamented after Israeli soccer fans were brutalized by a mob that organized itself around calls for a "Jew hunt." Dutch police were nowhere to be seen as Jews were physically attacked, forced to deny their religious identity, and compelled to mouth anti-Zionist slogans on camera. Dozens were injured in the melee, and 62 people were arrested in connection with the violence. Shame has not led to more effective policing. The anti-Jewish violence in the streets of the Netherlands is ongoing this week. Rioters have attacked local authorities, vandalized property, broken windows, and set trams alight. Israel sent aircraft to evacuate its imperiled citizens, a reminder of the necessity of the Jewish state.
◼ The eight bronze bells in the northern belfry of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris tolled in unison last week, for the first time since the fire that tore through the most iconic specimen of Gothic architecture left it half in ruins in 2019. The peal was a proclamation: Nous revivons! "We all felt an intense emotion," said Guillaume Normand, the cathedral's vice rector. "Notre-Dame is telling us: 'I'm here, waiting for you.'" The "signal of joy," as he called it, was also a throat-clearing before ceremonies commence on December 7. Notre-Dame officially reopens to the public the next day -- in the Catholic calendar, a holiday in honor of the lady who lends her name to the magnificent building. Merci to the French people and government for rolling up their sleeves after the catastrophic fire and restoring not only for themselves but for the world a monument to faith, a symbol of French culture, and an irreplaceable work of inspired beauty.
◼ The beleaguered New Orleans Saints didn't need to be reminded of their suffering. They were 2–6 on the season when Pope Francis wrote that they were "formed by the Beatitudes: poor, meek, merciful, hungering and thirsting for justice, seeking peace." So read a post from his X account on November 1, All Saints' Day. The hashtag #Saints triggered the platform to generate the NFL team's logo, a fleur-de-lis. Other posts from his account displayed the same glitch, resulting in messages that made unintended comic sense: "We cannot become #Saints with a frown. We must have joyful hearts that remain open to hope." The front office in New Orleans took note and responded. "Thank you for your prayers, Pontiff," they posted. "We need them." They won their next game, 20–17, against the Atlanta Falcons.
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