The GOP's Brilliant Plan to Distract from Critical Confirmation Hearings
"The Republican party appears to be employing a strategy wherein the public—and even lawmakers—will be too distracted to place much needed scrutiny on President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet nominees. Not only are six major confirmation hearings now scheduled for the same day (see below)—"preventing any one nominee from dominating a news cycle," as the Washington Post put it—but Trump himself rescheduled a long-awaited press conference for that very day: January 11. And that same Wednesday also happens to be when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) plans to begin a so-called vote-o-rama, "in which senators take dozens and dozens of votes on amendments with no clear end," Politico explains. Indeed, as Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told NPR of secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson's hearing in particular: "It may well happen on a day where we are literally voting continuously for 24 hours. I don't think that's the right day to hold a hearing where the members of the Foreign Relations Committee who have real concerns—both Republicans and Democrats—want to hear his full answers, not just race in and out." But that could be just what some Republicans are hoping for. "The GOP leadership's approach will minimize unflattering process stories and prevent Trump's nominees from receiving the kind of full airing and scrutiny that they would otherwise," James Hohmann wrote for the Post."
