As for the Senate’s advice and consent when it comes to political appointments, if the applicant was a political appointee of your political adversaries, or is possessed of other suspect connections, you should be suspect of affirming him or her, with your auto-response being “lets see who else we can find.” It is a no-brainer for Democrats and given their cranial capacity works well for them. Why is it Republicans in the Senate can’t at least learn to ask questions?
Readers may remember our DLH’s critique of the situation in these pages last week The Atkinson Diabolic Now we see at American Greatness this article (excerpt)
House Dems Move to Impeach, Senate GOP Writes Mean Letters
. . . Following closed-door testimony by Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community’s inspector general at the center of the so-called “whistleblower” report related to the July call between Trump and the Ukranian president, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) issued a harsh letter condemning Atkinson. “Your disappointing testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on September 26 was evasive to the point of being insolent and obstructive,” Cotton wrote on October 9. “I’m dissatisfied, to put it mildly, with your refusal to answer my questions.”
Cotton then posed five questions, including asking to which Democratic candidate or campaign the whistleblower is connected, and requested that Atkinson furnish his answers in writing by Friday, October 11. There is no indication of what Cotton’s next move if Atkinson, like nearly every other recipient of a strongly-worded letter sent by Senate Republicans over the last three years, will be.
Unfortunately, Cotton’s questions and concern about Atkinson arrive nearly two years too late. In January 2018, the Senate Intelligence Committee held a confirmation hearing with Atkinson prior to sending his nomination to the full Senate. (Atkinson was confirmed on a voice vote in May 2018). During that hearing, not one Republican senator, including Cotton, asked Atkinson a single question about his tenure at the Obama Justice Department in 2016 and 2017. Atkinson, as I reported last week, was the senior counsel for two top Justice Department attorneys tied to both the Trump-Russia collusion investigation and the set-up of former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn.
Those connections alone should have disqualified Atkinson from acting as the watchdog for a vengeful intelligence community out to get Donald Trump. Yet, after being recommended by former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Atkinson avoided any tough questions during his testimony. A former Obama Justice Department official who worked directly with the very same people responsible for sabotaging Trump’s presidential campaign and attempting to derail his presidency was put in a position of power by a Republican Senate. …
