Could a Sessions confirmation have stopped DeVos?

[ElkeH]

I have read a few times now that if Sessions had been confirmed as AG ahead of the DeVos vote, she would have lost 49-50 because Sessions would have resigned as Senator by then and would have been ineligible to vote in favor of her.

If that is true, why did Democrats not try to get his confirmation out of the way? Even though I think he is a horrible choice for AG, he was always more likely to be confirmed than DeVos anyway, so this seems like a squandered chance to stop at least one Trumpling.

[Trust Buster]

1. DeVos is totally unqualified to be Education Secretary. One vote is irrelevant.

[Ilsa]

5. ElKeh is saying one vote would not have

been irrelevant, it would have denied DeVos because Sessions would have been out of the Senate.

[Trust Buster]

8. I understand that. My point us that 49 other nit wits voted for her because she bribed them.

[Ms. Toad]

13. So you think having her in this position is the same as not having confirmed?

I don't care how many nitwits voted for her. I care that she is now in a position to do serious damage to public education in this country - and might not have been if we could have eliminated one nitwit.

[Trust Buster]

15. Rob Peter to pay Paul ? No thank you. Rubber stamping a racist to stop a dope is not logical.

The racist wants to take away your right to vote.

[Blaukraut]

2. pick your poison - or both of them. Sessions will be confirmed, too

[grantcart]

3. McConnell held Sessions back so he could vote

Sessions vote was scheduled for last week.

There is no way for the Democrats to "get his confirmation out of the way".

[DURHAM D]

4. The Republicans are in charge and they

are the ones who held back the Sessions vote.

[meadowlark5]

6. It's too bad senators make their votes known before the vote

Had Collins and Murkowski not said they'd vote no, they might have stuck with Sessions and voted him in then De Vos would not have been confirmed. But because they said they wouldn't vote for her, they delayed Sessions so he could vote and tie it up and let Pence break the tie

[Denzil_DC]

12. I suspect Collins, if not Murkowski too, would have voted for her if that had happened.

What did Harry Reid say? Something like "You can rely on Collins's vote except when it matters."

[meadowlark5]

17. Yeah, probably - they look good to their constituents knowing that she'd still get confirmed

Win win for them.

[avebury]

7. Unfortunately the Democrats are not always the best

chess players when it comes to politics. There is not much that they can realistically stop but they probably blew the one opportunity that might have actually worked in denying one cabinet choice - DeVos.

The Democrats really need to learn how to play multi-dimensional chess in order to be able to lay out steps that might actually move things towards a desierd end game.

They should be required to watch the movie Miss Sloane. What I loved about the character was her ability to play a multi-dimensional chess game against her opponents and they never saw it coming.

[tritsofme]

9. They would have waited for Alabama to appoint a successor.

Who would surely vote to confirm. Or they wouldn't have let Murkowski off the reservation.

[MattP]

10. Collins or Murkowski would have flipped

They will stand with us when it doesn't cost the right wing anything at least the hard core tell you to your face

[3catwoman3]

11. If Sessions had been out of the senate, one or the other of..

Last edited Wed Feb 8, 2017, 01:09 AM - Edit history (1)

...Collins or Murkowski, if not both, probably would not have voted against DeVos. Theirs were effectively hollow gestures.

[ElkeH]

16. Thank you

That seems like the most reasonable explanation. I get the sense they were allowed to vote against DeVos because Republicans knew there were enough votes anyway. Plus Trump got to push himself into the spotlight again by having Pence cast a historic tie-breaking vote.

[SaschaHM]

14. Democrats don't set hearings or confirmation votes. Period.

The moment Devos became less assured of passage, the schedule was changed.