If you're a conservative Republican like me, there's a whole lot in the first three days of the Trump administration about which to be ecstatic. Whether it's the ending of DEI at the federal level, undoing affirmative action root and branch with the stroke of a pen and transforming society into a meritocracy, seeing illegal border crossings reduced to under a thousand a day from their a peak of at least 8.5 million during Joe Biden's four years, arresting hundreds of illegal alien criminals, even in sanctuary cities and states like Massachusetts, it's nirvana. 

There are certainly criticisms being leveled at Trump 2.0, most notably over the J6 pardons, but the speed and efficiency with which the President and this White House are unwinding the damage from the previous administration and charting a course for the future have been breathtaking. 

Imagine what could be going on right now if Trump actually had his Cabinet nominees in place. 

Marco Rubio is the Secretary of State. As a testament to his diplomacy skills with his former colleagues, the once-Florida Senator received a unanimous vote out of the upper chamber, 99-0. He didn't need to cast a vote for himself. That vote does not indicate that all of his former Senate colleagues agree with every one of Rubio's foreign policy positions, nor those of the new President. The vote was a confirmation that Rubio is supremely qualified to know of which he speaks and run the Department and be the voice of this White House to foreign governments. 

Doug Burgum, North Dakota Governor and nominee for Department of Interior, is still waiting for the committee to vote his nomination out to the full floor. That is supposed to be happening as this column is being written, along with Chris Wright, the Energy Secretary nominee. Action this morning in other committees to report out nominees include Lee Zeldin for EPA, Brooke Rollins at Agriculture, Scott Turner at Housing and Urban Development, and Doug Collins at the Department of Veteran Affairs. 

Once those are reported out, the runway on the Senate floor is going to get about as busy as O'Hare Airport unless there's a breakthrough pretty soon. Former Congressman and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe sailed through his confirmation hearing in front of Senate Intel a little over a week ago, and was supposed to have had his final confirmation vote on the floor Tuesday. It didn't happen. Chris Murphy, the junior senator of Connecticut, objected. Arkansas' Tom Cotton, the chairman of Senate Intel, was not happy at all about the stall tactic, and took to the floor. 



Murphy has not stated what his opposition is to moving forward to the cloture vote, which thanks to Harry Reid and the Democrats, only needs 51 votes to achieve before a final vote, also only needing a majority or a 50-50 tie with Vice-President J.D. Vance breaking it. There is no serious objection to this nomination moving forward. It cleared Senate Intel on a 14-3 bipartisan vote. Is Murphy objecting to Ratcliffe on the floor? No. He's...on MSNBC with Joy Reid accusing Elon Musk of giving a Nazi salute.



This seems to be the only pressing issue Connecticuters care about. When Elise Stefanik, another supremely-qualified candidate to be the country's next ambassador to the United Nations, appeared before him earlier this week, he grilled her about Musk, and she bodied him in return. 



And Murphy's newfound horror at what he sees as anti-Semitism doesn't comport with pre-election Chris Murphy. That Murphy couldn't get enough of the pro-Hamas protests on campus...so long as they didn't actually beat up Jews. Calling for their destruction is just fine. As long as it was "From the River to the Sea" stuff, to Murphy, that's mostly peaceful, like the 2020 race riots all over the country. 

Murphy is a preening, know-nothing grandstander who shows up to the Senate every day looking for an opportunity to appear on CNN or MSNBC later that night. But as a Senator, he can object to any UC, or unanimous consent motion, which is how the Senate operates. He can gum up the works, at least temporarily. But when that happens, a lot of back pressure builds up in a hurry, and Cotton, John Thune, and the rest of the Republican conference better push through it with force, as Trump's political base won't be patient for very long and the talk of primary challenges will ramp up.  

I'm all for forcing the Senate majority to force their members to bring a cot. Order in a sandwich. Enjoy Washington in mid-January. Turn it into Hotel California - you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave until the Senate gets back into the personnel business. 24/7. The confirmation marathon. Bernie Sanders may not mind the cold, being from Vermont, but he's going to get cranky even for him having to come to the floor for procedural votes every half-hour in the middle of the night in order to keep the Senate in session around the clock. 

Eventually, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats will cave. They'll have to. The resistance by their resistance members aren't worth it to the rest of the conference that doesn't really have a problem with a lot of Trump's nominees. On some, like Pete Hegseth, probably on Tulsi Gabbard, and perhaps with Kash Patel as well, although there appears to be a resignation amongst Democrats that he's going to get confirmed despite their angst, there will be some sparky floor speeches and fights. But people like Ratcliffe, Wright, Burgum, Turner, and eventually Stefanik? Any floor antics will be purely performative, not genuine. 

So what about the rest of the nominees? Robert Kennedy, Jr. is set for a hearing on the 29th. Kash Patel's is upcoming as well. There are several - Pam Bondi included, who have had their confirmation hearings, but are waiting for a 7-day hold in committee before being reported out. That's not a hard rule, but a courtesy that both parties seem unwilling to violate. If there's contention over a nominee in committee, the vice-chair, or ranking member, can request a 7-day hold, and it is almost always granted. Personally, I'm for blowing that norm up. But for now, that's in there. But once those holds are cleared, the Senate has to prioritize these nomination votes above all else for the next 30 days. The deputies and assistants can all come later, but the principals of Trump's team need to get in place, and the Senate Republicans have to demonstrate they understand what a majority can do with the power bestowed to them by the American people. 

There's a lot of chatter online from other impatient people like me who want to just see the Republicans call a recess and allow the President to recess appointment all of them and get on with the work at hand. A drastic step, but one I don't think is necessary...yet. The Republicans are in charge, and they need to rule that chamber fairly, but firmly. Cotton's approach sets precisely the right tone, and gives the ominous threat to back it up. The FO is coming if Senate Democrats like Chris Murphy keep FA'ing. 

Scott Bessent should be the Treasury Secretary today. He cleared his confirmation with ease. There really is no opposition, other than opposition to Trump himself. If Bessent were scheduled for a floor vote tonight, he'd get north of 75 votes. That's not controversial. That's bipartisan. 

Here's Thune echoing the sentiment of Cotton on the floor yesterday afternoon. 

“This can be easy or this can be hard.” @LeaderJohnThune is taking Senate Dems to task for stalling John Ratcliffe’s confirmation as CIA director, delaying his ability to begin protecting the interests of the American people. pic.twitter.com/E4zLtB3i2Q

— Jessica Anderson (@JessAnderson2) January 22, 2025

I like the rhetoric, but talk is cheap. It's time to apply pressure. Squeeze them. Make life as uncomfortable for a Senate Democrat as humanly possible - Don't let them leave.