Trump Nominees Gathering Bipartisan Support

Despite bluster from some congressional Democrats, liberal activists, and the media, the prospects are looking good for most, if not all, of President-Elect Donald Trump’s most targeted Cabinet nominees. Most are gathering significant bipartisan support and are expected to be confirmed comfortably.

Even Maggie Haberman, The New York Times reporter long on the presidential beat, says most of the Cabinet is likely set for an easy confirmation.

“Politics can’t work if grudges never vanish.”

Haberman’s reporting on Trump was sometimes brutal. But her assessment is likely welcome news for the Trump transition team and several of its most discussed picks: Rex Tillerson, for secretary of state; retired Marine Gen. James Mattis for secretary of defense; and U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) for CIA director.

Haberman was reacting to news that former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, a Democrat, would be supporting Pompeo for CIA director.

Panetta served as President Obama’s secretary of defense from July 2011 to February 2013, according to his Pentagon biography. Before serving in that role, Panetta served as CIA director from February 2009 to June 2011.

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“He’s somebody who understands the intelligence agencies, is smart and I think will be a good director,” Panetta told CNN Thursday.

Panetta, a Democratic congressman for 16 years, understands better than most the needs for a steady and strong national security team. For Panetta to endorse Pompeo is still extraordinary, even for a retired Democratic official.

Pompeo is a conservative’s conservative: He is a Tea Party Republican and was sharply critical of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein in 2014 for her report on alleged CIA enhanced interrogation techniques.

But Pompeo has reportedly assured Democrats he won’t seek to revive the use of such techniques in the future.

Pompeo was never seen as having too much of an uphill fight.

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It’s Tillerson, the ExxonMobil CEO, who is seen as potentially facing a possible fight. But most of the fight so far has come from Republicans.

U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who had a busy December which included passing on the so-called “Trump Dossier” from British operatives to the FBI, said late last month that he has concerns about Tillerson’s friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a more candid moment — and one typical of the man who has cursed at people while on the floor of the Congress — McCain suggested it is unlikely he will support Tillerson.

According to U.S. News and World Report, reporters asked McCain if there was a “realistic scenario” in which he could support Tillerson’s nomination.

“Sure,” McCain told reporters. “There’s also a realistic scenario that pigs fly.”

But a more crucial vote will be U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who grilled Tillerson in the hot seat last Wednesday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The panel votes first to approve or disapprove the nomination, before the vote can be sent to the full Senate for a vote.

There are 11 Republicans on the committee, and 10 Democrats. Rubio voting “nay” on Tillerson in the committee could kill or delay Tillerson’s chances.

But in perhaps a surprising move, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said he expects Tillerson to be approved. He later told a reporter that he has not ruled out voting for Tillerson in committee.

Booker, who likely harbors future presidential ambitions, previously broke ground when he became the first senator to testify against a fellow senator in Cabinet proceedings. Booker told the Senate Judiciary Committee he had no faith that U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) would advance race relations as attorney general.

It was transparent political posturing to many pundits.

“Cory Booker has been ready to run [for president] since preschool,” said talk show host Larry Elder, speaking to Fox News.

Booker’s ploy with Tillerson may be to make clear to the Senate (and the voters) that Sessions was a one-time stand. It’s not a bad ploy: Voters and the Senate itself expect the president to be given deference in the selection of his Cabinet.

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Booker has often said he believes in bipartisanship, and has even worked with Sessions on legislation. Voting against Sessions gets him lots of free press; voting for the rest of the Cabinet earns Booker the claim to bipartisanship.

Even senators without such ambitions, in deep blue states, fear Trump may be onto something.

Trump ran as a deal-maker and never dismissed bipartisanship. Democrats ignored Trump’s populism, and the peril of that soon became clear. Just in case there has been a transformational change in U.S. politics, Democrats in deep blue states are hedging their bets.

In Connecticut, which last voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 1988, the state’s two Democratic U.S. senators are ready to introduce their former Republican nemesis to the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, according to the CT Post.

Linda McMahon, the wealthy co-owner of World Wrestling Entertainment, will be introduced at the committee by her home-state senators, two Democrats she ran against in tough, sometimes brutal contests.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who beat McMahon in 2010, and Sen. Chris Murphy, who beat McMahon in 2014, will introduce the former WWE executive and longtime Trump friend.

“Politics can’t work if grudges never vanish,” Murphy tweeted on Friday.

Once Trump starts moving as a newly sworn-in president, watch for more grudges to vanish.