I told a friend that I was tired of writing about the weak lame duck senator from the Gret Stet of Louisiana and didn’t plan to write about his vote on the Blanche nomination. I changed my mind when I saw the pictures taken before and after Cassidy announced his aye vote. Does that look like a picture of someone happy with their vote? Misery, thy name is Doctor Senator Bill Cassidy.
Repeat after me: Nobody’s worse than Todd Blanche.
This was the second time Bill Cassidy had a chance to torpedo a terrible Trump cabinet nomination. It was the second time he blinked and knowingly did the wrong thing. The Bobby Junior vote was deplorable but the Blanche vote was even worse. The world already knows how that shyster will run the DOJ, into the ground.
Also, worse than the first verse was Cassidy’s reasoning:
“The choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche. It is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general who may not run the department effectively under President Trump and who, indeed, may not be as good as Mr. Blanche.”
Repeat after me: Nobody’s worse than Todd Blanche.
His predecessor Pam Bondi did some despicable things but declined to file the 86-47 seashells case against Jim Comey. Todd Blanche ordered it done.
I wrote three major posts about Blanche’s dastardly doings before the acting was stricken from his title:
The Three Faces Of Todd Blanche.
Repeat after me: Nobody’s worse than Todd Blanche.
Nobody has done more to further the Insult Comedian’s retribution agenda than his former criminal defense lawyer. Bondi the dog thief delegated the Epstein Files coverup to her dogged deputy Blanche. He’s persistently violated the spirit and the letter of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Blanche’s meeting with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell went well. His meeting with Epstein survivors flopped. He only took the meeting to placate Senator Thom Tillis. Tillis at least got something in exchange for his vote: Bill Cassidy got nothing. His negotiating style is as weak as his chin.
World-weary resignation is an odd tone for a senator to strike in a floor speech. Nobody was floored by this vote: Bill Cassidy almost always takes the path of least resistance in his dealings with President Pennywise. Cassidy relentlessly sucked up to Trump during his first term, voted to convict on the second impeachment, then resumed brown nosing during Trump 2.0. None of it worked: Trump regards Cassidy with contempt for his apostasy and no amount of sycophancy was enough to secure Trump’s endorsement without which Cassidy finished third in the Republican primary. He didn’t even get 100K votes. In a word: Pitiful.
Bill Cassidy had one more chance to be a man, not a mouse. Instead, he squeaked his way through a short speech rationalizing his vote for a nominee he knew to be a bad one. I called him a mouse because lame duck doesn’t convey the depth of my contempt for Cassidy.
I’m not a mind reader so I can’t be certain of Cassidy’s motives. It could be fear or Lawrence O’Donnell could be right that Cassidy wants to be a lobbyist. Former senators are prized by lobbying firms because they retain full access to the senate floor and cloakroom. Even David Vitter was able to overcome his stink and cash in as a lobbyist. Imagine having Diaper Dave as your role model. In a word: Pitiful.
Senators like Bill Cassidy are worse than MAGA true believers: they know Trump is a monster and his agenda monstrous yet they continue to cower before him. That goes for Cassidy’s Gret Stet colleague John Nealy Kennedy as well. He just plays a fool; he knows who and what the Kaiser of Chaos is. You don’t have to be a lame duck to quack like one.
Repeat after me: Nobody’s worse than Todd Blanche.
The last word goes to Keb Mo:
Excellent analysis, Adrastos!