The day before yesterday during Markwayne Mullin's Senate hearing meeting, there was a moment when it looked more than possible the Oklahoma Senator would come over the table at fellow republican Senator, Rand Paul. Paul, from Kentucky, chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee which was charged with clearing Mullin's nomination to head the Department of Homeland Security for a vote on the Senate floor. In other words, if the Oklahoma Senator couldn't get the approval of the committee his nomination as Secretary of the DHS was a dead duck.
Saying there is bad blood between the two Senators is a bit of an understatement. It's like saying Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton had a slight disagreement. (For those unfamiliar with American history, or the musical, Burr killed Hamilton during a duel.) In the past Mr. Mullin has publicly called Senator Paul a, "freaking snake." He also once said he understood why Paul's neighbor physically attacked him. Something which Mullin reminded Paul of during the hearing. "I didn't say I approved of the attack, Senator. I said I understood it." It was at that moment the odds of Mullin going all Terminator seemed highest.
Mullin maintained control, however barely, as Paul and democrats peppered him with accusatory questions like, "Senator, you do know dueling has been outlawed for over 175 years, don't you?" Some questioned a top-secret flight into Afghanistan Mullin claims to have taken. According to the plumber turned Senator it is where he learned what war smells like. Democratic Senator Gary Peters told the nominee he had checked with all the national security agencies and none of their reports mentioned Mullin's name in connection to a trip smelling of war, or anything else. "I don't know how that reconciles, " Peters said.
Mullin did admit to, "misspeaking," after DHS officers shot and killed Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street--the Senator initially called Pretti a domestic terrorist. However, he refused to apologize to Pretti's family just like he refused to apologize to Paul. He also told the committee that under his command DHS agents would be required to obtain judicial warrants before kicking in the doors of suspected illegal immigrants. Democrats noted that while his promise seemed sincere, he still had to get it approved by Trump and his version of Lavrentiy Beria, Stephen Miller. Their doubt was such they said they wouldn't believe it until it was enacted into a law passed by Congress.
At one point, Mullin explained that his reason for calling Rand Paul a, "snake," was Paul's occasional habit of voting with democrats on issues republicans had endorsed. The statement took an ironic turn yesterday when the committee voted 8-7 to advance his nomination. Paul, who apparently like Mullin isn't much for all the forgive and forget stuff, voted against his confirmation. Normally that would have doomed the nomination. However, his vote was offset by Pennsylvania democratic Senator John Fetterman's. Despite Mullin's lack of immigration, or law enforcement experience--despite his lack of administrative expertise, well, other than running his dad's plumbing company, and despite his lack of a four-year college degree and his taste for physical violence--Fetterman voted to advance the nomination to the Senate floor.
Explaining his vote, Fetterman cited his, "constructive working relationship," with Mullin. (Hey, who knows? Maybe the gentleman from Pennsylvania owns a heating and air business on the side.)
Now the nomination is headed to the floor where it will almost certainly pass. Or rather it will take a miracle not to pass. It doesn't matter if Markwayne Mullin is, as one democrat described, "uniquely unqualified," for the job. For reasons that are increasingly hard to explain, when it comes to republicans, whatever Donald Trump wants, Donald Trump gets.
Which brings us to the latest round of polls. Something called, List Wire compiled different poll numbers and published the results online yesterday. Overall, they found the President's overall approval rating running somewhere between 40% and 44%. Then they ran a state-by-state list. Some results were as we'd expect, others, not so much.
In Mullin's Oklahoma Trump's approval rating is 57%. In Fetterman's Pennsylvania it's 39%. In Idaho the President's approval rating is 55%, but in Hawaii it is a mere 18%. Where it gets interesting though is in the south. The presidential approval rating in Alabama is 52%. In Arkansas 55% and in Tennessee 51% In Louisiana however he dips to 49%. In Mississippi he has dropped to 48%. Then in Georgia the approval rating is down to 38% and in Florida 44%. In North Carolina it's 43% and Texas 44%. Hell's bells, he's even under water in South Carolina with a 47% approval rating. Ronald Reagan this guy ain't.
No wonder Donald Trump doesn't want anyone to be able to vote this year. He's getting his ass kicked and he won't even be on the ballot.
All of which drags us to the next question. Why is everyone in the republican party still scared of this gruesome old caricature of corruption? Why are they willing to confirm a Secretary of Homeland Security who has the very real potential of being more brutally violent and incompetent than the last one? one who is quite capable of showing up on the Senate floor with cane in hand, ready to beat the living shit out of anyone who says something critical about him?
For God's sake, they all can't be in the Epstein file, can they?
Obviously, members of the U.S. Senate and House don't see the train that is coming straight at them. After over ten years of chaos, cons, bald faced lies, run amok ego, and unwarranted braggadocio the American public is turning on Donald Trump.
And when he finally does go down, so will everyone who stood with him. You can make book on it in all those prediction markets.
3-20-26
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