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Democrats can’t afford to jeopardize red staters picking pointless fights with Trump over well-qualified nominees just because Chuck Schumer thinks he has to resist everything, always, forever

Boost for Pompeo: Democrat Heidi Heitkamp says she’ll back his nomination as Secretary of State



Boost for Pompeo: Democrat Heidi Heitkamp says she’ll back his nomination as Secretary of State It would be weird if the same guy who got more than 60 votes to confirm him as CIA director couldn’t get a single vote from the opposition party for Secretary of State, but we live in weird times. The Republican Senate caucus is mostly behind Mike Pompeo, but mostly isn’t good enough. John McCain is nowhere to be seen and may never turn up in Washington again. Rand Paul seems to have it in for Pompeo because he supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and he’s determined to rehash that debate forever.
That only leaves you 49 Republicans, and that’s assuming the likes of Collins, Flake and Murkowski don’t decided they have oh-so-serious “concerns” about whatever. But if all the other Republicans do stay together, Heitkamp would get you to 50 so Mike Pence could break the tie in favor of confirmation. Why would Heitkamp break from what appears to be pretty solid Democratic opposition?
But on Thursday, Ms. Heitkamp, one of several red-state Democrats up for re-election in November, said Mr. Pompeo has demonstrated “he is committed to empowering the diplomats at the State Department so they can do their jobs in advancing American interests. Even if Mr. Pompeo gets an unfavorable vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next week, he could still be voted on and confirmed as secretary of state by the full Senate. With most Republicans set to back Mr. Pompeo, Ms. Heitkamp’s support makes his confirmation by the full Senate more likely.
It could be as simple as that. A red state senator running for re-election doesn’t want to explain to her red state voters why she obstructed the appointment of a perfectly qualified cabinet nominee by the president many of them voted for. And she’s far from the only red state Democrat senator up for re-election this year. Others who face potentially close races are going to have to think about just how uniform they intend to make their resistance of all things Trump. Remember, you hear all the time about how mid-term elections are brutal for the president’s party, and typically they are. But Democrats are defending 23 Senate seats this year, and that’s a lot of heavy lifting if you hope to gain seats, let alone tread water. Democrats can’t afford to jeopardize red staters picking pointless fights with Trump over well-qualified nominees just because Chuck Schumer thinks he has to resist everything, always, forever.

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

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