Confirmation Hearings: A Sacrament in the Church of Liberalism

Earlier this week, confirmation hearings began for Gina Haspel, President Trump’s nominee to serve as CIA Director.  Confirmation hearings have become increasingly theatrical, leading me to believe that they have become nothing more than audition tapes for 2020 Presidential hopefuls. 

The Democrats hope to use Haspel’s involvement in enhanced interrogation against her, particularly focusing on her ordering of the destruction of a series of tapes detailing enhanced interrogation against suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists.  Far-left Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), widely seen as a contender for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 2020, asked Haspel if she thought the enhanced interrogation techniques used in the time period immediately following 9/11 were immoral.  Haspel should have assuaged the Democrats’ fears when she said that she did not agree with President Trump’s assertion that torture works.  

Haspel faces an uphill battle as she seeks to become the first female Director of the CIA.  Two Senate Republicans, Rand Paul and John McCain, have already indicated that they plan to vote against her. Their dissenting votes would have meant she would not have enough votes for confirmation, although she must have breathed a sigh of relief when Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who faces a very tough re-election bid in the ruby red state of West Virginia, has indicated that he plans to vote for her.

Unlike judicial nominations, who often remain on the bench long after the President who nominated leaves office, those nominated to cabinet posts will only serve for eight years or less.  Many cabinet officials do not even last for the entire duration of the Administration of the President who nominated them.  Only one of President Obama’s cabinet officials, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, remained in his post for the entire duration of the Obama Administration.  

Apparently keeping this in mind, Republicans approved of most of President Obama’s cabinet picks.  One could argue that these nominees had no chance of defeat, as the Democrats had a commanding supermajority for a good portion of Obama’s first term in office.  Republicans held just 41 seats at the beginning of Obama’s tenure in office; that number dwindled to 40 when Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter switched parties.  The Democrats finally reached the magic number of 60 seats when Al Franken finally took his seat in the Senate after a hotly contested election in Minnesota.  Unlike President Trump, who has quite a few Republican Senators who do not like him, President Obama enjoyed near-unanimous support among Senate Democrats.  94 of the 100 Senators voted to confirm Hillary Clinton, President Obama’s pick for Secretary of State who served as his main rival for the Democratic nomination in 2008.  75 Senators voted to confirm Eric Holder, President Obama’s pick to serve as Attorney General despite the fact that he had played a key role the controversial Marc Rich pardon, which took place during the final days of the Clinton Administration. Even a handful of Republicans voted to confirm his first two Supreme Court nominees, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.  Nine Senate Republicans voted to confirm Sotomayor and five Senate Republicans voted to confirm Kagan, compared to just three Democrats who voted to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch and four Democrats who supported President Bush’s most recent Supreme Court pick, Justice Samuel Alito.       

As President Trump sought to put his cabinet together, he had a much smaller Senate majority to work with.  For his first year in office, the Senate consisted of 52 Republicans and 48 Democrats.  After Republicans lost a Senate seat in Alabama, the majority dwindled to just 51 seats.  Only on rare occasions have Democrats given President Trump the same courtesy that Republicans gave President Obama when allowing him to pick his cabinet.  Only four of President Trump’s cabinet picks so far have received “yea” votes from 90 or more United States Senators.  The Senate confirmed another handful of the President’s cabinet picks on either a party-line vote or a bare majority, with one Republican joining all Democrats in voting against Mick Mulvaney, President Trump’s pick to serve as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.  HHS Secretary Tom Price won confirmation on a party-line vote while Vice President Pence had to cast a tie-breaking vote on a cabinet nominee for the first time in United States History, as two moderate Republican Senators voted against Betsy Devos, President Trump’s pick to head the Department of Education.   

As Tucker Carlson pointed out earlier this week, “Modern liberalism is a religious movement.  It’s a replacement for the Protestant Christianity that the left worked so hard to undermine and destroy.” Conservatives have long recognized that liberalism has many characteristics of a religion, including Ann Coulter, who wrote an entire book called Godless: The Church of Liberalism.

Just as Catholics have confirmation as a rite of passage and Jews have Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs, it looks like that adherents to the Church of Liberalism must make waves during confirmation hearings in order to become fully enshrined in the Church of Liberalism.  Only confirmed members of the Church of Liberalism can run for President as a Democrat in twenty-first century America.   

Dramatic confirmation hearings for judicial nominees have become the norm in the post-Bork era, as liberals have recognized that they must maintain control of the Courts by any means necessary in order to ensure that their religion, which does not boast majority support among the American public, remains as close to a state religion as possible.  The late Senator Ted Kennedy, a Saint in the Church of Liberalism, slandered Robert Bork, President Reagan’s pick to fill the seat of retiring Justice Lewis Powell, as an extremist, his nomination ultimately failed when it came before the full Senate.  Clarence Thomas described his confirmation hearings as a “high-tech lynching” after the Democrats attempted to use sexual harassment allegations by one of his former colleagues as an excuse to derail his nomination.     

In the age of Trump, confirmation hearings for cabinet posts have also become quite theatrical.  When the Previous CIA Director Mike Pompeo sat in front of the Senate Intel Committee, Senator Harris asked him about his position on climate change.  In the Church of Liberalism, few causes matter more than environmentalism.  Harris seemed to believe that Pompeo’s past questioning of the dogmas of environmentalism disqualified him from serving as CIA Director.      

Pompeo apparently has a huge target on his back.  A little more than a year after he became CIA Director, President Trump nominated Pompeo to become Secretary of State.  Somehow, the topic of gay sex came up during his confirmation hearing, instigated by Cory Booker, another 2020 Presidential Hopeful. Acting as if Pompeo sought to become Director of GLAAD rather than Secretary of State, Booker asked him “Is being gay a perversion?  Yes or no, do you believe being gay is a perversion?”  Booker’s theatrics received widespread acclaim in the mainstream media.  NBC’s Katy Tur attempted to justify the question: “So some folks watching might say to themselves, ‘Well, why does his view about same-sex marriage matter if he is going to head the State Department?” It doesn’t seem immediately relevant. But when you consider what his role really is...he’s going to be the head diplomat for the United States. He’ll be representing American values overseas, and in some places where gays and lesbians are targeted, and often targeted violently."  If nothing else, Booker and Tur’s obsession with gay marriage illustrates the amount of success the Church of Liberalism has had in wiping away the influence of Judeo-Christian teachings in everyday norms. Pompeo answered Booker’s ridiculous question by saying “My respect for every individual, regardless of sexual orientation, is the same.”    

Booker had previously tried to derail the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, becoming the first sitting Senator to testify against another.  Booker had tried to portray Sessions as a racist despite the fact that Sessions had worked with Booker to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the marchers at Selma.  Less than a year before Sessions’ confirmation hearings, Booker sang quite a different tune about his Senate colleague from Alabama:  “I feel blessed and honored to have partnered with Sen. Sessions in being the Senate sponsors of this important award.”

As she sought to prove Sessions as a racist, Senator Elizabeth Warren read a thirty-year-old letter from Coretta Scott King urging Congress to block his nomination to a Federal judgeship, arguing that his presence on the bench would “irreparably damage” the work of her husband. The leftist media all too happily helped Senate Democrats make their case against Sessions.  MTV culture writer Ira Madison told Sessions that he should take his Asian granddaughter back to Toys ‘R Us.  Sessions’ granddaughter sat on his lap during his Confirmation hearings, leading Madison to believe that she was a prop designed “to send an ‘I’m not racist’ message.”

While most slandering of cabinet nominees takes place during confirmation hearings, some of the slander takes place before confirmation hearings even have a chance to begin.  Dr. Ronny Jackson, President Trump’s nominee to serve as the Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs, withdrew his nomination after a series of unflattering allegations became public.  CNN reported that Jackson, then serving as the White House physician, loudly banged on the door of a female colleague during an overseas trip, requiring Secret Service Agents to calm him down so he did not disturb the President.  After Jackson withdrew his nomination, the Secret Service came forward and said it had “no such record of any incident; specifically, any incident involving Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson.”    

All of President Trump’s future nominees to cabinet positions had better get ready for battle because unlike most religions, which emphasize mercy, the Church of Liberalism has adopted a practice of “no mercy” when it comes to Republican cabinet nominees, especially those made by President Trump.