Slate - "What the Hell Is Wrong With Senate Democrats?"

(Great question, by the way)...

By Osita Nwanevu

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/01/27/what_the_hell_is_wrong_with_senate_democrats.html

Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii won his race in November with nearly 74 percent of the vote. He had the biggest margin of victory of any senator on the ballot in 2016, in a state that gave Hillary Clinton her biggest margin. He is ensconced. By all rights he should be, if not a leader, at least a foot soldier in the Democratic resistance to President Trump.

It was perhaps with these things in mind that the Huffington Post interviewed him on Tuesday over his votes in favor of Donald Trump’s nominees—five in all thus far. The Democratic Party, Schatz explained, should work to approve “reasonable” Trump appointments. “The door swings both ways in Washington,” he said. “At some point we’re going to want a Democratic president to stand up a Cabinet. So we’re trying to be reasonable when the nominees are reasonable.”

Leave aside for a moment Schatz’s evident willingness to support as “reasonable” the nomination of Mike Pompeo, a man who thinks the CIA’s torturers are “patriots,” as the agency’s director. As anyone who has been awake for the past eight years should be well aware, the notion that the Republican Party will reward Democrats in the future for their deference now is utterly laughable.

So just what the hell is going on in the Senate?

One can understand, perhaps, the ease with which Defense Secretary James Mattis won the support of Senate Democrats given the possibility that he’ll be a moderating influence on Trump’s foreign policy. The same is true, for similar reasons, of Nikki Haley’s confirmation as ambassador to the United Nations. Wilbur Ross and Elaine Chao’s fairly uncontroversial nominations sailed through the Senate Commerce Committee on voice votes—one can also understand, perhaps, Democrats having a hard time getting worked up over those two. But 37 Democrats in the Senate voting to confirm John Kelly as secretary of Homeland Security, even though he has pledged to go after sanctuary cities and declined to give a clear answer as to how he would deal with DREAMers? Fourteen Democrats voting to confirm Mike Pompeo, a man who said that Islamic leaders in America were generally complicit in terrorism, as CIA director? All 11 of the Senate Banking Committee’s Democrats voting unanimously—unanimously—to advance the nomination of Ben “Grain Silo” Carson—a man who has stated that he could not, in good conscience, vote for a Muslim president and is, by his own reported admission, unqualified to run any federal agency? What gives? The answer, as always, is the Democratic Party.

snip

and my favorite line

"The broader truth is this: the Democrats, unlike the Republican Party, haven’t a clue how to build and wield power"