Kim Strassel says it best!
Trump’s Matt Gaetz Fugue
With his nomination for attorney general, the president-elect crosses the thin line that separates bravery from foolhardiness.
By Kimberley A. Strassel
Nov. 14, 2024 5:21 pm ET
The line between brave and foolhardy is vanishingly thin, and Donald Trump weaves across it daily. Step on one side, land on Elon Musk. Step on the other, land the nation with Matt Gaetz.
Political bravery is necessary for change, and Mr. Trump’s is a big reason he’s admired. His first appointments reinforced last week’s conservative high, with smart picks that demonstrated a commitment to reform. Elise Stefanik, a no-nonsense New York congresswoman, tapped to confront antisemitism at the United Nations. The experienced Tom Homan overseeing complex questions of migrant deportation. The policy pro Lee Zeldin tackling Environmental Protection Agency deregulation.
So perhaps it was only a matter of time before the step on the wrong side, Mr. Gaetz, Mr. Trump’s choice for attorney general. Few jobs are more pressing in Washington than overhauling the politicized Justice Department—as Mr. Trump knows better than most. So the
decision to pick a self-promoting featherweight disliked by 98% of his colleagues and towing a steamer trunk of skeletons is foolish indeed. It’s the kind of choice that makes even true supporters wonder how easily Mr. Trump is gulled by Twitter flash.
It takes hard work to be
universally unpopular in Congress, but it’s the one job Mr. Gaetz has done well. It’s not only “moderates” steamed about Mr. Gaetz’s takedown of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Among House Freedom Caucus rebels, Senate conservatives and Trump partisans, a Gaetz mention elicits smirks, sighs, knowing eye rolls. They aren’t jealous, and they aren’t “RINOs.” They simply make a distinction between the many members who put in the hard work, and the few of no accomplishment who preen on social media as the “true” conservatives in Washington. Mr. Trump swallowed that hype.
That was the first mistake.
It’s a seal of approval to choose a nominee uniformly reviled by the left; it’s “not so smart” (as Mr. Trump might say) to pick one capable of emptying a room of Trump loyalists. Did he honestly not know? If so, worrisome. Especially given the GOP list of objectors is so thoroughly cross-caucus (proof that Republicans can agree on some things), and their list of objections so wide-ranging—from temperament to experience to fidelity to the law.
Which gets to the second mistake. If you are going to nominate someone unpopular, don’t make it a person who is also serving up, on a real-time scandal platter, a solid reason to tank his nomination. Many Republicans will discount a prior
Justice Department investigation into Mr. Gaetz on allegations of underage sex trafficking, given the department’s politicized reputation. But the Floridian is also the subject of a
House ethics probe into claims of drug use, sexual misconduct, misusing funds and special favors.
Mr. Gaetz denies all allegations, yet he also abruptly resigned from Congress on his nomination, two days before the Ethics Committee was expected to issue a report. Other House Republicans nominated to the administration are staying put through this year to provide a whisper-thin GOP House majority crucial votes in this lame-duck session. Any thorough Senate vetting will have to include those House findings. Mr. Gaetz’s resignation suggests it won’t be pretty reading.
The nomination was bad enough to make
many Republicans wonder if Mr. Gaetz is this cycle’s sacrifice. Put up a lightning rod, make the base happy, draw fire away from other controversial picks—then pull him when it’s clear he’s sunk and guilt the Senate into a second choice. A Machiavellian might even wonder if this was designed to reward all of Washington by shuffling Mr. Gaetz out of politics entirely.
The more troubling likelihood is that Mr. Gaetz was whom the president-elect had in mind when he made his recent demand that Congress bow to recess appointments. Yet it’s one thing for the Senate—a separate branch of government—to work with a president to speed a nominee bottled up by the opposition. It’s another for that body to abdicate its advice-and-consent duties to aid a nominee too insufferable to pass a 53-seat GOP Senate. Also, Democrats would love that precedent.
The Justice Department desperately needs adult supervision after years of Russia-collusion hoaxes, double standards, and politicized investigations and prosecutions. This moment is too important to waste. Yet nothing good will happen under a deeply polarizing figure who will lack the baseline respect or support of Congress and the professionals necessary to get anything done. Don’t blame senators who reasonably think the
nation’s top law-enforcement agency deserves a reformer of sterling reputation and accomplishment—and so choose to view the Gaetz nomination as the product of a Trump fugue, in need of correction.
Better would be for the president-elect to recognize the error and save everyone the drama and delay. The former president campaigned this year on a promise to restore the Justice Department’s reputation, and the country deserves to see that fulfilled. Bold means nothing if it isn’t accompanied by seriousness.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trumps-m...hness-be25a6fe
A Fugue-ing Terrible Pick
