Never let it be said that establishment operatives within the Republican Party apparatus can’t snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The only questions that remain are these: Do they do it because they are power-hungry Deep Staters? Or are they just that incapable of recognizing a mandate when they see one?
The latest in the long line of “are you shitting me” moments comes in the elitist and tone-deaf remarks emanating from George W. Bush’s “architect,” Karl Rove.
In a recent op-ed penned for The Wall Street Journal, Rove is quoted as saying:
“While his nominees prepare for their hearings, the president-elect must turn to what is in many respects an equally important task: picking the No. 2s for his cabinet secretaries and administrator…It will be especially important for Mr. Trump’s picks to have capable No. 2s as undersecretary, deputy secretary, and chief deputy administrator — titles vary from place to place — especially if the No. 1 is new to government or that department’s function.”
Rove states that those “No. 2s” (I am sure that no pun was intended) should be people who have served in the agencies, departments, and commissions and know how they function; adding the entire process might be “confounding even [to] the most purpose-driven leader.”
Rove finishes up his piece by saying, President-elect Trump:
“...needs people who have been in the trenches, grappled with the bureaucracy and have some sense of its powers to distract, delay and misdirect…Shaking things up works only if doing so helps rather than hurts the American people. Doing the right thing the right way matters. Who’s No. 2 matters almost as much as who’s No. 1.”
Well, Rove has that last part right, anyway. And I do agree with him on his overall point. Trump cannot make the same mistake as during the first Trump administration (Trump 1.0). He must appoint and place people who understand the Washingtonian game and who won’t get gamed by the system. The problem here is this. The Republican and conservative inside-the-beltway bench is sprinkled with careerist, inside-the-beltway Deep Staters who, like last time around, would be quite tempted—if not motivated—to inject their self-preservative ideologies rather than faithfully carry out Trump’s Deep State destruction agenda with fidelity.
So, if we are to follow Mr. Rove’s advice and saddle the Trump nominees with establishment Republican “No. 2s,” how are we to have a reasonable expectation that those “No. 2s” won’t obstruct the administration’s anti-Deep State efforts just like many of Trump’s “No. 1s” did during Trump 1.0?
There can be no guarantee with a Washingtonian insider because that cohort has repeatedly proven to the American people that they have either a loose or non-existent relationship with the truth. Truth is “subjective” to that peer group. They can justify almost any action or infidelity, no matter how egregious.
One need only look at how the so-called Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collin (R-ME) abdicated their fidelity to their party’s leader during Trump 1.0.
Collins and Murkowski are two of only three GOP senators advancing to the 119th Congress who voted to convict Trump in an impeachment trial. Each has voted in line with GOP colleagues a scant 36% of the time this year. In most instances, their votes helped Chuck Schumer hammer through radically-Left judicial nominations. This voting fidelity is a far lower percentage than any other senator.
With the news that the “Deep-Statiest” Senator of them all, Mitch McConnell (R-KY), is set to step aside to pave the way for Collins to take the reins of one of the most influential committees in Congress, the Senate Appropriations Committee (a role that wields unparalleled control over discretionary federal spending), following Rove’s advice would detract from the almost impossible task of taming the federal government.
To follow Rove’s advice to install “No. 2s” from the establishment Republican and conservative bench, to install those who “have been in the trenches” and “grappled with the bureaucracy” would almost guarantee that the most necessary of reforms and deconstructions would never come to fruition.
In fact, rather than heed Rove’s advice, the Trump 2.0 transition team—and the President-elect himself— should consume the underlying sentiment of Rove’s point and take it in another direction.
Instead of placing establishment GOP bench-sitters into the “No. 2” positions as Rove suggests, why not seek out, vet, and appoint those who understand the Washingtonian inside-the-beltway games but who have been screwed over by the Deep State establishment? Strategically gather a group of potential second-in-commands who have a vendetta against those defending the status quo and the Deep State bureaucracy itself.
A battle-hardened “No. 2” with a burning desire to shatter the Washington swamp, adept at navigating Trump’s appointees through the minefield of bureaucratic sabotage laid by Deep State parasites, will be the linchpin in executing Trump’s 2.0 agenda with ruthless efficiency.
The next step is to start decontaminating the sewage pipe that maintains the steady flow of retreaded staffers that regurgitate through the departments, agencies, and commissions, not to mention the cesspool of Deep State, leaky, careerist staffers who actually run the congressional offices on Capitol Hill.
Once those things are done, we actually have a chance to take back our Republic, thanks to the man the far-Left calls Hitler.
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