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The Trump presidency is different, to say the least. This would be a great way to manifest that differentness.

Two more red state Democrats back Pompeo’s confirmation as Secretary of State; UPDATE: Rand Paul too


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By —— Bio and Archives April 24, 2018

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Two more red state Democrats back Pompeo’s confirmation as Secretary of State; UPDATE: Rand Paul too This looks like a done deal now. Joe Manchin of West Virginia got on board early yesterday, and Joe Donnelly of Indiana followed in the afternoon. They join Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota as red state Democrat senators who know their states aren’t interested in seeing them obstruct everything President Trump does just for the sake of obstruction. That, plus the decision of Jeff Flake not to make this one of the fights he wants to have with the president, puts Pompeo at 50 votes at least, which would give Mike Pence the chance to break the tie if it came to that.
Remember, John McCain is out sick and Rand Paul, who voted to confirm John Kerry for the same position, has apparently decided to make Pompeo a casualty of the Iraq War, so he’s going to need at least some Democrat votes to get to 50. (UPDATE: Paul announced late Monday that he will also back Pompeo after previously saying he would opposed him.) This should do it:
“We need a Secretary of State who will give the president an honest assessment on critical issues, including Russia, Syria, and the defeat of [the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria] ISIS. I believe Director Pompeo is capable of advancing U.S. interests and leading the State Department,” Donnelly said in a statement. Pompeo already has the votes needed to be confirmed by the full Senate. In addition to Donnelly, Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) — each of whom are up for reelection in states Trump won in 2016 — have said they will vote for Pompeo. With Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) opposed to the nomination, Pompeo only needed to pick up one Democratic vote in order to secure the 50 votes needed to be confirmed.
But the boost of momentum comes as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is poised to snub Pompeo on Monday evening by refusing to give him a favorable vote. Paul, a member of the panel, is expected to join with the 10 Democrats on the committee to oppose Pompeo’s nomination. But Republicans are expected to bring his nomination to the Senate floor regardless of the committee vote.
It would be unusual for a cabinet nominee to have his confirmation brought to the floor in spite of no positive recommendation from the pertinent committee. But it’s unprecedented for this many senators to be obstructing everything a president does regardless of merit, and they shouldn’t be rewarded for doing so by getting their way. Now the question is whether Pompeo suffers the same fate as so many other Secretaries of State, which is to say he loses his clear-eyed view of the world and starts to become influenced by the bureaucracy at Foggy Bottom. Diplomats have an inherent bias in favor of talking, “process” and pieces of paper, and it seems that every time we get a Secretary of State who ought to know better than to think that way, he or she ends up getting assimilated in short order. The Trump presidency is different, to say the least. This would be a great way to manifest that differentness.



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Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

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