Uh-oh: DeVos Education Secretary nomination in trouble

blacbird said:

Sullivan is a newbie, and has been pretty much silent about everything, simply following Murkowski's lead.

Click to expand...

Do you think Murkowski voting no would make Sullivan more likely to vote no as well?

I don't think it's in trouble. They can afford to allow two Senators to appear to bow to their constituents as long as everyone else does the lockstep. I believe Collins and Murkowski are doing this for show.

Cmalone said:

I don't think it's in trouble. They can afford to allow two Senators to appear to bow to their constituents as long as everyone else does the lockstep. I believe Collins and Murkowski are doing this for show.

Click to expand...

Having GOP senators vote against DeVos isn't really a show that benefits the republicans, though. IMO, of course.

Michael Wolfe said:

Having GOP senators vote against DeVos isn't really a show that benefits the republicans, though. IMO, of course.

Click to expand...

No, but it allows the constituents of those Senators who are relentlessly calling them to feel like their Senators are listening to their interests while still not sacrificing the GOP end goal.

I don't know as much about Murkowski, but Collins has a long history of bucking typical GOP positions on various things. Collins being Collins just strikes me as a likelier explanation than some kind of conspiracy theory.

Both of these Senators also seem to come from "safe" republican states so they place themselves at serious political risk of primary challenges over this. Of course Collins isn't up again until 2020, but she also has bucked Trump by refusing not only to vote for him but also to support his immigration ban. My guess is she will soon be marked with the scarlet RINO and cast out. Although the flip side is she hold the record of second longest streak of conservative roll call votes which I'd say is valuable ot the GOP.

Murkowski no the other hand won't be up until 2022. She also is a bit liberal being somewhat pro choice (although apparently both the life and choice sides don't like her for varying reasons). Still, Alaska is an oddball, everyone thinks they're solid Republican but they often buck that. But she still puts herself at risk of primary challenges n 2022. But that's a long way off.

Still, i give these two credit for not following the party line. This all brings up an interesting thought though: ll the Dems needs is ONE more Senator to buck the GOP and DeVos is done. Pence can only vote if there's a tie, he cannot vote to MAKE a tie. What will be interesting is how Donny boy takes a defeat like that. I suspect he will go bat shit on a level we haven't seen yet.

Alessandra Kelley said:

I think you are probably right, and I find my existential dread slightly alleviated by evidence of a little decency yet remaining in Congressional Republicans.

But I will say, what used to be a strong skepticism about conspiracy theories that relied on large numbers of people colluding together has been sorely shaken by the lockstep uni-votes and identical arguments (which adjectives are they all using this week?) touted by pretty much the entirety of Congressional Republicans for the last eight years.

Click to expand...

One thing I'm hoping to see are more Republican legislators coming over to the side of sanity, recognizing Trump is just too far out there. I'm sure Ryan and McConnell are telling them in private, "stick together, we will be getting the legislation we want, Trump's Cabinet is not a battle we need to fight." But some of Trump's actions have to be bothering more people than Collins and Murkowski.