I love football, I love football strategy, and I love this analysis.
THE BIG IDEA: By scheduling six confirmation hearings for the same day, the Senate GOP is working to prevent any one Donald Trump nominee from dominating a news cycle. The gambit is very likely to succeed.
It’s no coincidence that Republican committee chairmen scheduled hearings for some of the president-elect’s most controversial and polarizing nominees next Wednesday.
Trump, after putting it off repeatedly, will also finally have his first press conference since the election at the same time. And Mitch McConnell plans a budget vote-o-rama, including votes related to the repeal of Obamacare. This will further distract the press and the public.
The GOP leadership’s approach will minimize unflattering process stories and prevent Trump’s nominees from receiving the kind of full airing and scrutiny that they would otherwise.
It’s the political equivalent of running a no-huddle offense in the first quarter and throwing a lot of deep balls when you know the defense is outmatched. The other side’s best safety is still recovering from a pulled hamstring, and the defensive coordinator is distracted by the head coaching job he’s going to take next season. The odds are that Team Trump will score a bunch of touchdowns.
In fact, the conventional wisdom inside the Capitol right now is that all of Trump’s picks will get confirmed, no matter how many red flags several have in their backgrounds…
— On a quiet day, most of the aforementioned hearings would have the potential to transform into get-your-popcorn-ready blockbusters that could lead the news and spark a national dialogue about hugely consequential topics, from the future of public education to race relations, America’s role in the world, the moral hazards of Trump’s support for torture or the virtue of a trillion-dollar infrastructure package. But the flurry of simultaneous activity will make it vastly easier for his allies to jam these secretaries through without any of these debates breaking through.
— Don’t forget: Because Harry Reid myopically went nuclear in 2014, all these folks can now be confirmed with just 50 votes.
