Trump judicial nominee withdraws his name after incredibly embarrassing video goes viral.

MUST WATCH: Republican @SenJohnKennedy asks one of @realDonaldTrump’s US District Judge nominees basic questions of law & he can’t answer a single one. Hoo-boy. pic.twitter.com/fphQx2o1rc

— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) December 15, 2017

Damn! I have seen that numerous times now but it still makes me cringe.

Well I am not the only one to cringe, and now this Mathew Person guy is taking his ball and going home.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

President Donald Trump’s judicial nominee Matthew Petersen has withdrawn his name from consideration after a video went viral of him failing to answer basic questions about law in his confirmation hearing. 

“It happened,” an aide to a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee told HuffPost on Monday. 

The White House later confirmed the news. “Mr. Petersen has withdrawn his nomination and the President has accepted,” a White House official told HuffPost. 

In his letter to the president, Petersen said he’s withdrawing because he doesn’t want to be “a distraction” to the administration. 

“I had hoped that my nearly two decades of public service might carry more weight than my two worst minutes on television,” he said. “However, I am no stranger to political realities, and I do not wish to be a continued distraction from the important work of your Administration and the Senate.”

Yeah, don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out Spanky.

Let's face the facts Donald Trump's appointees are among the least qualified folks to have EVER been nominated for a judicial, cabinet, or government position.

Personally I think they should all be rejected just as a basic rule of thumb.

Donald Trump's nominee for the Department of Agriculture’s chief scientist has withdrawn his name from consideration. No, not because he was completely unqualified, because of the Russia investigations.

Courtesy of WaPo:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientist nominee, Sam Clovis withdrew his name from consideration Wednesday amid revelations that he was among top officials on the Trump campaign who was aware of efforts by foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos to broker a relationship between the campaign and Russian officials. 

Court documents unsealed Monday revealed that Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in early October to making false statement to FBI investigators about his contacts with foreigners claiming to have high-level Russian connections. In August 2016, Clovis encouraged Papadopoulos to organize an “off the record” meeting with Russian officials, according to court documents. “I would encourage you” and another foreign policy adviser to the campaign to “make the trip, if it is feasible,” Clovis wrote. The meeting did not ultimately take place. 

In a letter to the president Wednesday, Clovis explained that he did not think he could get a fair consideration from the Senate, which was slated to hold a hearing on his appointment on Nov. 9. 

“The political climate inside Washington has made it impossible for me to receive balanced and fair consideration for this position,” wrote Clovis, who currently serves as USDA’s senior White House adviser. “The relentless assaults on you and your team seem to be a blood sport that only increases with intensity each day.”

That is not the "political climate" you smell, that is justice coming to get you.

I would think that the Washington politicians would learn a lesson from Jeff Sessions, and simply not confirm any of Trump's nominees until they are certain they did not work with the Russians or are not about to be subpoenaed by Robert Mueller or one of the other Russian investigators.

It would not look particularly good for the Washington Republicans especially to allow a Trump nominee through only to learn later that he was a bag man for the Kremlin.

Mitch McConnell triggers "nuclear option" to pave way for Trump's Supreme Court nominee.

Courtesy of ABC News: 

The Senate has altered the longstanding practice for confirming Supreme Court justices after Democrats today blocked the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch. 

In order to bypass Democrats’ opposition, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., first invoked the so-called nuclear option. The Senate then voted to change Senate precedent on voting on Supreme Court cloture votes from the 60-vote threshold to a simple majority of 51 votes. 

Republicans on their own did not have enough votes to end the floor debate on Gorsuch’s nomination, a move known as cloture, under the current rules requiring 60 votes. The first Senate vote to end debate (cloture) on Gorsuch's nomination failed with a vote of 55-45. 

This is what the Democrats wanted all along.

All of that talk about the Democrats overplaying their hand, and how this was going to bite them in the ass down the road, was all BS because the Democrats KNEW that they had to vote against this nomination to placate the base, and that in so doing McConnell would change the rules moving forward. 

Now I would suggest that the Democrats keep this same tactic up for every other nominee and policy proposal that Trump sends their way until these investigation into his collusion with the Russians has reached completion.

I just hope that Gorsuch enjoys occupying Merrick Garland's stolen Supreme Court seat.

Senator Elizabeth Warren says "it is crazy" to consider Trump's Supreme Court nominee in the middle of the Russia collusion in investigation.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said on Tuesday that the Senate shouldn't confirm a Supreme Court nominee from President Trump while the FBI is still investigating any potential ties between his campaign and Russia. 

"I think it is crazy that we are considering confirming a lifetime Trump nominee to the Supreme Court at a moment when the president's campaign is under the cloud of an active, ongoing FBI counterintelligence investigation," Warren said from the Senate floor. 

She added that the FBI's probe into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election "could result in indictments and appeals that will go all the way to the Supreme Court, so that Trump's nominee could be the deciding vote on whether Trump or his supporters broke the law."

That is exactly right and that is EXACTLY why the Democrats should of their best to block EVERY ONE of Trump's nominees and policy decisions. 

This is an illegitimate presidency and therefore everything that Trump does is also illegitimate.

In my opinion every Democrat, and very likely many Republicans, running for office next year should be making damn sure that they are on record as obstructing every single thing that Trump attempts to accomplish.

If they do not, they might very well find themselves out of a job sooner than they anticipate.

Apparently Ted Cruz is inadvertently helping the Democrats right now. Update!

Courtesy of TPM: 

While Republican senators were fuming at Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) for holding up a $1.1 trillion spending bill aimed at preventing a government shutdown, Democrats saw a silver lining: the move by Cruz and Lee gave Democrats an opening to move a number of President Barack Obama's nominees for federal judgeships and the executive branch. 

What happened was that when Cruz and Lee scuttled a deal between Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that would have allowed lawmakers to leave Washington D.C. for the weekend and come back Monday they gave Democrats a chance to advance Obama's presidential appointees by having to stay in D.C. to deal with the spending bill. 

The extra time over the weekend gave Reid the opportunity to, through the Senate's executive session, file cloture on the nominations and move them sooner than they would have under the deal Reid and McConnell had planned on and that Cruz and Lee blocked. Under the original deal Reid would have had to schedule votes on the nominees later in the upcoming week, when Democrats may not have wanted to stick around to vote.

Was worried Dr. Vivek Murthy might not get confirmed but thanks to @TedCruz, looks like he will. #TopDocNow #SurgeonGeneral
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) December 13, 2014

Courtesy of Politico:

The nominations may take days of procedural votes and a lot energy but are likely to be a boon to the president’s hopes of winning approval of as many nominees as possible before his party loses the Senate. 

“A lot of these people have been sitting in the calendar for a long time. So if this prompts my leadership to stay a little longer to get a lot of nominations done, then I’m happy about that,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) of the unusual Saturday session. 

That's Ted Cruz for you. He always knows exactly where to find his foot. Right next to his molars.

Update: Well the bill passed.