Gaetz, Gabbard and Hegseth

 I mean...holy crap. I am so old, I remember when Jeff Sessions was a terrible Cabinet pick.

In a sane world, Gaetz's nomination dies in the Senate. The pressure, though, is that this is a double loyalty test for Republicans.

The first is that Trump is going to pick awful people who are loyal to him. Shit, Gaetz wants to get rid of the FBI and ATF. Explain how that makes sense. We finally got "defund the police" and it's Trump who wants to do it. The ATF? More like WTF.

The second is that this is the equivalent of Caligula putting his horse in the Roman Senate. It's a test of how much he can push the Senate to bow to his whims. It's also why we really do need a miracle in Pennsylvania to preserve Casey's seat. Murkowski has shown backbone to Trump before and even the legitimately maligned Collins has strayed on occasion. If you have Casey, Murkowski and Collins, you only need one lone Republican with principles to scuttle these nominations. I would think Gaetz, in particular, will be denied, because Republicans hate him, too. 

Hegseth and Gabbard are concerning for different reasons. Whereas Gaetz is the Himmler in this scenario - running Justice as a Trumpist militia - Hegseth and Gabbard have the potential to directly damage American and global security. Gabbard is a pro-Assad, pro-Putin stooge. Hegseth is a TV personality who's expected to run the largest part of the government?

There is another, funnier outcome of all this. Gaetz has already resigned from the House, because he's under an ethics investigation that now has to end, because he's no longer a member. Elise Stefanik and Michael Waltz are already tapped for positions in the Executive.

The GOP has the absolute minimum of seats right now. You can subtract three to get them to 216. Democrats have 208 and are currently leading in five races. If they win those, they get to 213. Meanwhile there are two GOP House seats with under a 1,000 vote margin. Flip those and it's 215-216.

In some ways a one seat GOP House majority is OK, though a one seat Dem majority would be hilarious. It neuters Johnson's ability to control the agenda and things that require legislative action could be DOA in the House.

Trump's nomination process is already a perfect encapsulation of his chaotic management style. Nominating those three manifestly unqualified lackeys will sow chaos on the various departments. Potentially denying his party a clear House majority is another.