Houston Maybe I’m becoming a bit paranoid in my dotage, but I’m starting to get suspicious of President-elect Trump’s wacky clown car of nominations for critical pieces of the US government. Maybe I’m overthinking this, but I’m starting to think there’s a method to this madness. I’m beginning to think that he’s throwing out names in a sleight of hand to draw the attention, while he sneaks in people perhaps even worse, but less well-known and perhaps more dangerous, because they might be competent.
Someone at the Times, made the point that many of us can remember candidates that weren’t approved because they took a toke in college or paid undocumented housekeepers and nannies under the table. Now we are dealing with folks, as the analyst pointed out that:
… seem minor in comparison to allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use by his attorney general pick detailed in a secret congressional report, a sexual assault accusation followed by a paid settlement for his choice to head the Pentagon and an acknowledged former heroin addiction by the would-be health secretary.
Even Trump was quoted the other day saying that Matt Gaetz likely wouldn’t be approved by the Senate, but he was sticking with him for now. Although now, based on breaking news, seems less than 24-hours, since Gaetz has now withdrawn his name from consideration for the AG post.
I wonder if he and his people are just giving us a head fake. Propose someone preposterous for HHS, like Robert Kennedy, Jr, and then swallow hard when he names Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former television talk show host, heart surgeon, and pitchman for weird and questionable health supplements to head the part of the agency that oversees health insurance programs for millions of Americans, because he’s at least a doctor and was enough of a politician that he was worrisome when he ran for the Senate in Pennsylvania. Some like Senator Marc Rubio almost seems like a reasonable choice for Secretary of State against the likes of the crazies, even though what world is it that sees Rubio as a diplomat?
If he’s working a Trojan Horse strategy to sacrifice some weird ones, while paying off political debts in order to sneak lower profile problems into dangerous positions, knowing there won’t be a war on every nominee, the method of his madness may be that people like the wrestling lady for the Education Department or Dr. Oz for the nation’s health programs are a wrecking crew. Linda McMahon ran the Small Business Administration in the first term, so she’s an easy one to get by the Senate, and maybe is going in order to try and gut the Education Department or at least finish the job that Betty DeVos started in Trump I. Now, Trump and Congressional strategists are reportedly already looking at ripping to shreds what’s left of the safety net to get the juice to continue to reauthorize the devastating 2017 Trump tax cuts for the rich. Oz might be just the man for that.
If we’ve learned anything the last four years and in the recent election, it’s that we underestimate Trump at our peril. Now I’m starting to see a mad genius, scheming behind every building pillar in Washington. I can’t be sure, but we need to worry.