Conservative Washington Post columnist George Will in Scottsdale, Arizona (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
With swing state Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) having declared that he is a firm "no" on confirming Todd Blanche as a permanent United States attorney general, President Donald Trump's acting AG will need Republicans to stick together when his nomination comes up for a full U.S. Senate vote. And conservative Washington Post columnist George Will is hoping that enough Senate Republicans will defy Trump and sink Blanche's nomination.
The Never Trump conservative, in a biting Friday morning Post column, writes, "What benefit of norms is owed to someone who disdains norms? There are many sufficient reasons to oppose confirming Todd Blanche as attorney general. Presidents generally are owed some deference in selecting Cabinet members, but 'some' implies limits, lest the Senate's advice-and-consent duty be drained of responsibility. And not all presidents are equally owed. Today's president is owed little, given his contempt for the unwritten rules of civility that can lubricate a congenial society's governance."
Most Senate Republicans are expected to vote in favor of confirming Blanche. But if Democrats vote in unison against him as expected — including Fetterman — GOP defections could become perilous for Trump's acting AG.
Will argues, however, that Senate Republicans have confirmed many of Trump's nominees when they should have had the courage to say "no."
"If, at most, four Republican senators had, in committee or floor votes, behaved as independently as the Founders thought senators would, (Pam) Bondi, Kristi Noem, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others would not have been confirmed to offices far above their competences," Will says. "Children probably have died of measles, and of hepatitis B passed from mothers to infants, because of vaccine hesitancy promoted by Kennedy, who lied when he promised not to indulge in such quackery if confirmed as secretary of Health and Human Services."
The conservative columnist continues, "Now comes Blanche. He received this embarrassingly backhanded endorsement, in the Wall Street Journal, from former Attorney General William Barr: Blanche 'will run the Department (of Justice) as effectively as anyone could under President Trump.' Is this sufficient reassurance for Republican senators? Or will, at last, a nominee trigger their gag reflexes? Once, when someone noted that Sen. Richard Russell, the Georgia Democrat, had 'served under' six presidents, Russell bristled, saying he 'served with' six. It will be a pleasant surprise if, concerning Blanche, a few Republican senators become similarly sensitive about those prepositions."
