Democrats Aren't Quite Learning Yet

After a major mess involving the security of a sensitive military discussion came out, twelve Democrats voted for an inexperienced Trump donor for Navy Secretary. What are you doing? 

The idea is that the person has the business acumen to reform the mess of the Navy Department, which sounds like a dig on the Biden Administration. It's on some level reasonable to argue management experience is enough here. There is precedent on both sides. Nonetheless, it's politically easy to defend grounds to vote "no," especially given the number of inexperienced incompetents in this administration.  

This was a lay-up ground for Democrats to refuse to vote to confirm anyone, at least top military people until something is done. Hegseth is responding with ranting and Trump is doing a Mr. Magoo routine. 

Schumer and others are going after the Trump Administration for the screw-up. It would be blatant incompetence not to do so. What is appropriate is a demand for people to be fired, backed up with a usage of the power Democrats have to block appointments at least temporarily. Or, at least, not to vote to confirm! 

One libertarian/conservative Trump opponent argued on Bluesky that if Trump was so gung ho about a shutdown, he wouldn't have pushed for the Republicans to pass a continuing resolution. 

I have not seen this bit discussed. I did see Trump taunt Schumer by praising his support. That sounded like a dare to vote against the CR. Either way, this adds to the ammunition against Schumer's vote and strategy. The party needs new leadership. 

There is also a chicken/egg problem here. The vote suggests a split among Democrats on how far to go in the response to Trump. Schumer would be an understandable choice for the caucus. We can blame Schumer, but as I did before the CR vote, we should also blame those who helped him.  

BTW, when I tried to discuss this online, the Disqus system on a website blocked me from posting a list of the Democrats who voted along with a link to a discussion. Someone responded and said the problem might be that Senator Coons (D-DE) has a name that looks like a racial slur. Really?