Monday, January 30, 2017

Stay On 'Em

AT A TESTY MEETING with a crowd of constituents Sunday evening, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., became the latest Democratic senator to face a grassroots backlash for voting to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Whitehouse was one of 14 Democrats who voted last Monday to confirm Mike Pompeo, a fierce Trump ally who largely shares the president’s antagonism towards Muslims and personal privacy, and has strongly suggested that he supports bringing back intelligence gathering techniques that include torture.

[...]

The venue hit its capacity of 600 people, leading the overflow crowd to chant for the senator to come outside so they could hear his explanation for the vote.

“You are entitled to an explanation of why I have voted for some of the defense nominees and I will concede right off the bat that I may have been wrong,” Whitehouse told people in the auditorium.

  The Intercept
Gee, how could that have happened?
“Why did I vote for Pompeo?” Whitehouse said. “I think that there are a lot of you who may disagree with me on this, and I appreciate it. Sometimes I feel pretty confident, sometimes you need to make a judgment call.”

“He’s a Rubio guy,” the senator continued, drowned out by a chorus of booing. “Sometimes you need to be in a position to say no if something really, really significant happens.”

The crowd, unhappy with the response, began yelling again, and called for the senator to disclose his positions on other Trump cabinet nominees.

[...]

Whitehouse committed to voting against Betsy DeVos for education secretary, Steve Mnuchin for treasury secretary, Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, Jeff Sessions for attorney general, Scott Pruitt for EPA, and Andy Puzder for labor secretary.
Did that explanation make any sense whatsoever?  Still, how neat would that be if the president were named Whitehouse?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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