As I write this at 11:30pm, Cory Booker is speaking on the Senate floor. The Democrats have been holding the floor since noon today, and intend to do so until the 24 hour debate period ends. I’ll be honest, I’m not an expert on Senate rules, I find them to be back room voodoo, albeit steeped in tradition. Either way, the Senate Democrats drew a line in the stand on this nomination. Conceivably because there have been 2 Republicans(Murkowski and Collins) already voice their decision to not vote for DeVos, the thinking is it might be possible one more stands up to right wing nominee.
What stands out to me, and I’ve had the luxury of following the hearings, debates and floor speeches, that not one Republican has been able to articulate an argument for DeVos. All I’ve heard from them is “Obama got his nominees…had 9 confirmations by this point…”. But not one solid argument for her, her philosophies or her experience to ably manage the Department of Education. Sure, they’ve thrown out, “she loves children”, but that doesn’t make her qualified to lead a Cabinet level department of the United States or play a primary role in shaping public education.
Even Sessions, who I disagree with on practically every issue, could be argued as qualified to lead a department. Hell, even CEO Tillerson has the practical experience to lead a huge department and the background to lead large scale negotiations. (I simply disagree on principles that they should be in the respective offices.) So why are the Republicans standing so pat for DeVos? Spite?
Unfortunately, it most likely all about the money.
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