Editorial: The Senate must stand up -- RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have to be rejected

On Saturday afternoon, at 4:17, Donald Trump used his Truth Social to announce the last of his cabinet secretaries, Brooke Rollins for USDA, finishing naming the 15 positions far faster than any other incoming president. His speed might be because he’s been here before, so he knows what he’s doing, which is definitely fine, or he’s not having the normal FBI background checks on the picks, which is not definitely fine.

Whatever the reason for Trump’s speed to set up his second cabinet, the Senate cannot be hasty and must give the nominations careful scrutiny and reject those who are not qualified.

The flameout of the comically unfit Matt Gaetz for attorney general wasn’t due to a Senate vote. The Senate never voted on Gaetz and no committee hearings were held. That process won’t start formally until the new Senate is sworn in on Jan. 3 and the Republican-led chamber won’t confirm anyone until Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20.

Partisans and political allies are to be expected, as are Rollins and the AG substitute, Pam Bondi, but all of the nominees must be qualified for the jobs they are to assume.

If you need a mnemonic device to recall the cabinet in order of rank and line of succession (which is also the order that each department was created) we use this: “See the dog jump in a circle; leave her home to entertain every visitor here.”

Translated it is: State, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security.

Our biggest concerns are about Defense, with Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, and HHS, with vaccine-denier Bobby Kennedy.

Hegseth has never managed anything a fraction of the size of the Pentagon in terms of its budget or personnel. His views on women on combat (he’s against) are at odds with settled U.S. policy and a 2017 police report with sexual assault accusations and a confidential financial settlement with the woman at issue are troubling. He has yet to show that he can do this job.

As for RFK Jr., there is no question, he must not be the health secretary. He believes vaccines cause autism. They do not. Reasonable people may differ on getting a COVID shot (a vaccine created in record speed by the Trump administration which has saved millions of lives) but every child must be vaccinated against deadly illnesses like measles. Kennedy’s quack theories, from the perch atop HHS, will reduce the measles vaccine rates and it will kill children, guaranteed.

Not on the mnemonic roster is director of national intelligence, a Senate-confirmed post that Trump wants to be filled by Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, who has swung from the Bernie Sanders left to the Trump right, with a disturbing admiration for aggressive U.S. foes like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. She is not to be entrusted with the nation’s secrets and the Senate must reject her.

Vice President Kamala Harris said she’d name a Republican in her Cabinet if she was elected (maybe Liz Cheney?), which used to be the norm to have someone from the other party. Trump never said anything about choosing a Democrat, but he has picked RFK Jr. and Gabbard. We are all for bipartisanship, but no thanks.

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