Warren and Franken make Trump’s Cabinet picks squirm

[mystery-ak]

 Warren and Franken make Trump’s Cabinet picks squirm

The liberal duo cements their status as leaders of the Trump opposition.

By Elana Schor

01/18/17 07:01 PM EST

Al Franken and Elizabeth Warren know how to command a spotlight — if there was ever any doubt, they’ve dispelled it this week with highlight reel-worthy grilling of Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks.

In the process, they’ve have cemented their roles as lead figures of the Democratic Party’s Trump opposition front.

Franken and Warren have produced a series of viral moments — tripping up several Cabinet hopefuls with intense questioning that’s drawn tens of thousands of online shares and retweets. They’re the biggest but not the only Democratic stars of the confirmation dais, which gives the minority party a valuable spotlight as it searches for a unified message following a brutal election-year defeat.

more
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/al-franken-elizabeth-warren-senate-confirm-233805

[txradioguy]

The two most unqualified people in the Senate.

[corbe]

   Watched as much as I could of these today, Patty Murray (D) WA also had all her venom on display.
   She even admitted the incontrovertible fact that ALL Trump's appointees will pass. 
   You'd think they'd hold some powder back for Trumps USSC nominee.  We all know McConnell will not go 'nuclear' on that and will back down and we'll end up with Trump's sister on the Court, who they will agree with.

[Wingnut]

Those two are a real pair. 

[Hoodat]

Patty Murray (D) WA also had all her venom on display.

Patty Murray couldn't spell C-A-T if you spotted her the 'C' and the 'A'.  She is the dumbest person ever elected to the US Senate.

[Hoodat]

Franken had it handed back to him today by Johnny Isakson who pointed out how Franken is invested in Big Tobacco while enacting legislation that affects the bottom line of tobacco companies.

[Frank Cannon]

Only Polutico could manufacture a fake news headline like that. Those two morons looked like they couldn't get out of their own way in these hearings. Anyone really think these nominations are in jeopardy because of them? These two are a clown car full of stupid.

[Just_Victor]

@Hoodat

Yep. I call her the "moron in tennis shoes" (a play on her moniker in the Washington MSM, "mom in tennis shoes")

Isn't that an insult to tennis shoes?

If I were a tennis shoe, I'd be offended.

[Restored]

Murray: Tell me you want to defund public schools.
DeVos: No
Murray: I assume your answer is yes.

[mountaineer]

Consider what this young man has written. He describes himself as being cautiously optimistic when Obama took office, but Obama's appointment of a bunch of pointy-headed "czars" convinced the writer of what a statis the Big Zero really was. He comments on Trump's appointment of non-pointyheads, non-Ivy League elitist political philosophers:

If you watched the Department of Education confirmation debate between Elizabeth Warren and Betsy DeVos, and your first thought was, “Man, this DeVos lady has no clue! Elizabeth Warren is taking her to school. This is utterly frightening …” then you have completely missed what is happening right now. In fact, as I watched Ms Warren run circles around Ms DeVos, with numbers and figures and quote regs chapter and verse, I realized that she, herself, has no idea what is happening right now.

She still thinks this is about qualifications and resumes. But what’s happening right now is not about any of that. Elizabeth Warren, in her well-prepared, intelligently laid out, sound-byte-savvy banter, showed herself to be obsolete in a world that has just changed. She just doesn’t realize it yet. Let me explain …

What you’re witnessing with the Trump administration is managed attrition.

He is putting warriors in charge of the military. On the surface, that looks like war mongering. But it’s actually the opposite. People who have been in battle are the least eager to go to war. They know what it really means. So, you’re less likely to speak to them in terms of “battle theory” and more likely to speak to them in terms of “battle reality.” Ironically, more warriors in charge of the military probably means less war. That’s military attrition.

Conversely, he is putting people in charge of domestic government agencies who have NO experience whatsoever in those fields. Believe it or not …that’s actually what I would do. So, instead of someone having a whole bunch of plans on how to expand this or that agency or big new ideas on what this or that agency can do, you have people literally getting the “8-year-old” pitch on the agency itself. When Ms DeVos replied to Ms Warren’s question about a certain rule within the dept of Education, “We’ll be looking at all the rules,” I instantly knew what was happening. Ms Warren still doesn’t.

Someone with fresh eyes, who is not steeped in the inner workings of a government agency, is now going to examine it from top to bottom. They’re basically on a fact-finding mission to determine if that agency should even exist in the first place. These people are smiling and taking the verbal hits from the professional politicians and looking naive on camera. But they’re there to actually audit the government ITSELF.  ...

That “fundamental change” you thought you were voting for in 2008? Well, THIS is actually what it looks like.

There’s a movie called “Dave” starring Kevin Kline. A guy who is a perfect doppleganger for a sitting president steps in and “plays” the president, after that president has a debilitating stroke. This regular guy brings one of his business-owner friends to the White House one night. And they sit up and balance the budget over sandwiches and soda …in about 12 hours. They can do this because they have no ties to any of those agencies. They can look at it objectively and say, “why are we doing this? Give me the 8-year-old pitch on this.”

Well guess what? “Dave” is now the president …for real.

There are two kinds of people: those who believe everything should be managed by a government agency …and those who don’t. I fall (more often than not) into the later category. When I watched the Elizabeth Warren/Betsy DeVos exchange, my reaction was, “why on earth does the government have an education agency that filters a trillion dollars a year? What are we getting for that?” Everything else was just noise to me.

Now, I understand there are implications with children with special needs, etc. And I am sensitive to that as a parent of a special needs child.

But I wonder if some of these agency rules and actual federal laws don’t overlap? We shall see. All I know is if ONE person at ONE government agency holds the power over my daughter’s education rights, then that person and that agency both have too much power. And I personally believe that’s what Betsy DeVos is being sent there to find out.  ...

Read the rest here

[Hoodat]

Awesome.  Thanks for posting.

[mountaineer]

When I watched the Elizabeth Warren/Betsy DeVos exchange, my reaction was, “why on earth does the government have an education agency that filters a trillion dollars a year? What are we getting for that?”

[beandog]

Only Polutico could manufacture a fake news headline like that. Those two morons looked like they couldn't get out of their own way in these hearings. Anyone really think these nominations are in jeopardy because of them? These two are a clown car full of stupid.

You know you're in trouble with at least 70% of lawmakers are dumber than my cat and the best person we could come up with to run the country was
Trump.

[Night Hides Not]

Based on the footage I saw, none of the "squirming" was worthy of a Preparation H commercial.

[Wingnut]

Based on the footage I saw, none of the "squirming" was worthy of a Preparation H commercial.

A red hot poker up the ass?  Now that would be squirm worthy.

[austingirl]

Patty Murray couldn't spell C-A-T if you spotted her the 'C' and the 'A'.  She is the dumbest person ever elected to the US Senate.

She's got a lot of company.

[mountaineer]

Patty Murray couldn't spell C-A-T if you spotted her the 'C' and the 'A'.  She is the dumbest person ever elected to the US Senate.

Hey now, I thought Pennsylvania's Bob Casey had that title (with West Virginia's Joe Manchin a close second).  ^-^