Joan McCarter on Daily Kos has a bone to pick with Senator Hawley (R-MO), as does Senator Schatz (D-HI), concerning Hawley’s persistent blocking of Biden’s nominees in an era of near-war with Russia:
Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley is gearing up to run for president in 2024. That means going full QAnon against the most qualified Supreme Court nominee in a generation, and it means going where Trump goes: in alliance with Putin. That includes undermining the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. State Department.
One Democrat had enough on Thursday, and is tearing up the internet with his takedown of the odious Hawley. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) came to the floor to request unanimous consent to confirm Christopher Lowman as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment at the Department of Defense, whom Hawley has been blocking since his nomination in November. Hawley objected, with a rant criticizing President Biden’s foreign policy and defense strategy.
“So, what Senator Hawley wants is to go through his litany of criticisms of the Biden administration, and the truth is that every senator has that right without blocking the logistics guy from the Department of Defense,” Schatz said.
“But he’s doing a very specific thing. He is damaging the Department of Defense. We have senior DoD leaders, we have the Armed Services Committee coming to us and saying, ‘I don’t know what to tell him, I don’t know how to satisfy him, but he is blocking the staffing of the senior leadership at the Department of Defense.’”
So Hawley is – unsurprisingly – being a dick even when it endangers the United States. Young people often think there’s no real danger in the world except their ideological opponents, such as Schatz. They don’t understand monsters lurk where they think they see green pastures.
So here’s an idea. Round up all the nominations to the DoD Hawley’s refusing to fast track because Hawley, poor boy, doesn’t get to dictate the behavior of other branches of government. Get Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) to schedule a late session.
Notify the press that something important is going to happen at that session.
At the session, once again move for unanimous consent to approve the first nominee. Hawley stands to object and, as McCarter puts it, repeat his litany of complaints. The moment he’s done, move for the second nominee. If Hawley tries to reference his earlier speech, tell him that’s not allowed because the Senators have already forgotten his speech.
Rinse, lather, repeat.
At some point, Senator Schatz can leap to his feet and make a very short speech, noting that anyone objecting is being recorded by the press, and that recording will prove the anti-American activities of those objecting, because the nominees are critical to the DoD mission.
Hawley’ll be angry and flustered and might just say something he really shouldn’t. While the Republican base may not believe press recordings, independent voters will look at them and, mostly, shake their heads at the juvenility of Hawley, and write him off as a serious person.
