UPDATE: Perry’s selection as Energy Secretary is good news for Democrats in one regard. As “The Fix” reports:
Almost everyone — including Harry Reid — expected West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D) to take a job in the Trump administration. Tuesday, Manchin said he was staying put…
…Manchin’s surprise decision to stay in the Senate and, presumably, to seek a second term in 2018 is a major break for Democrats who badly needed one. Had Manchin abandoned his seat, there is a roughly zero percent chance Democrats would have held it in November 2018. Manchin is a popular former governor who is regarded as apolitical, a necessary status in a state that Donald Trump won by 42(!) points in 2016. Even with his decision to run again, Manchin could face a real challenge from Reps. Evan Jenkins or Dave McKinley or state Attorney General Patrick Morrissey. But the incumbent Democrat will start a race against any one of that trio as a favorite.
—–
From Politico:
On a presidential debate stage five years ago, Rick Perry blanked on the Energy Department’s name when trying to include it in a list of agencies he promised to abolish — memorably concluding with “oops.”
Now Donald Trump has chosen the former Texas governor to lead the sprawling department, which oversees the security of the nation’s nuclear weapons and has played major roles in President Barack Obama’s climate agenda and nuclear deal with Iran. Three sources close to the transition confirmed the choice Tuesday…
…The conservative Heritage Foundation last month urged the next president to eliminate vast swaths of the department, including all the research, development, regulatory and loan programs that the Obama administration has used to drive advances in green energy, as well as its 700-million-barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And last week, Trump’s transition team asked DOE to supply the names of all agency employees who had worked on Obama’s climate initiatives, a request that Democrats and former staffers denounced as a “witch hunt.”
Perry, the longest-serving governor in Texas history, also had the Energy Department in his sights during the 2012 presidential campaign, when he called for eliminating it as part of his program to shrink the federal government.
So, uh, Rick Perry is going to head up a department that he does not think should exist. This is like hiring Denver Broncos legend John Elway as the President of the Oakland Raiders.
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Great choice. Eh, PissAnt?
Privetstvuyu Pobedy!
Guberner Oops is no newklear fizicist.
I'll bet you could drown a small kitten in our internet fraudbot's underwear this morning.
Perry perhaps getting his wish to shut down Energy.
DeVos perhaps getting Perry's wish to shut down Education.
That only leaves Perry one short of his trifecta: but Ross at Commerce doesn't seem likely to shut it down so much as modify to allow MORE commerce with fewer regulations.
Now all we need is a certain Arabian Horse lover/former FEMA director to take over Homeland Security and all the pieces of the Trump farce will be complete.
You can practically hear them singing "Fuck America, Yeah"
I hope Lee Greenwood is still proud to be an American….
The Secretary-elect has a great get-away where they can gather round the
burning churchcampfire and strategerize.Shutting down DHS wouldn't break my heart. Somehow, the word "homeland" has always rubbed me the wrong way. I call it the Department of Fascist Security.
Come on, skinny. Who doesn't lust for those security lane pat-downs?!?!?
We haven't flown since before Georgie's cowboy adventures started and aren't likely to; though we've driven to IL and back twice since then. I'm not spending that much money to be treated that badly.
I got to stop counting the quasi-molestations the day my Global Entry card arrived! I'm making up for your grounded life – I'm in the air about every other day. It's a George Clooney life without the Hollywood mansion, the British spouse or the Italian villa. It does, however, come with airplane wifi so the idiot trolls can keep me entertained between airport terminals.
Governor of one of the nation's biggest energy producing states. All the rest is whining.
"Energy secretary" has mostly to do with nuclear weapons capacity.
He also happens to be a moron.
You're as clueless as you are incessant.
Don't tell Fluffy that Texas is the largest producer of wind energy in America, thanks to GWB. And for Gawd sakes someone tell the Screaming Yam that feral cats kill about 1000x more birds than do ‘windmills’.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/judeclemente/2016/10/11/the-great-texas-wind-power-boom
Quite seriously, michael, I'd like to see efforts to control feral cats as an offset to some such program. Another help would be water for birds in winter. We have a bird feeder but save far more lives in winter by being sure they have liquid water. Dehydration in cold weather kills many more birds than hunger does. A few heated watering spots would do wonders.
Agree wholeheartedly.
oops.
Manchin as a Dem in the senate is not a bad thing.
He will vote with the pubs most of the time anyway.
Yes, but he'll vote with us to organize the Senate, after the Trump Backlash of 2018 when 22 million Americans lose health insurance and go hunting for the lying turds who betrayed them!
V
The Dem senate landscape in 2018 will be brutal for the Dems.
I don't see the Dems picking up seats.
Sure, Carny. The country will be so enthralled by Mr. Trump's climate-destroying, job-shipping, safety-net ripping, Constitution-trampling, 1% wealth creating Make America Hate Again program that they will happily vote him in a slate of like-minded dittoheads.
That is, if he hasn't been impeached or resigned to take a higher-paying position by 2018. Mr. Putin may well have decided that the idiot has outlived his usefulness by that point, and no longer be backing Trump. Or he may have domestic troubles of his own to keep a lid on, and no time to spare for the American Spring.
Of course, if Trump has succeeded in starting nuclear war with China by then, it won't matter much which party gets into power. The party will be over for everyone.
WELL, you didn't see a Trump victory coming either. Given the level of incompetence he is showing with his cabinet, you could have a president with approval ratings in the 20s in two years. And most of the voters you want to take health care from are in that no college white voters that swung this vote toTrump. But if truth be known, I'd rather win a lot of legislative and governor seats and begin working for the mother of all gerrymanders in 2022! Trump may be your new Herbert Hoover.
Too bad we can't exchange, Manchin for McCain.
"We"?
Pee Pee the traitor is a Democrat…?
I think he means too bad “we republicans” can't exchange manchin for mcCain. Duke.
Oh …I get it. Duhh.
Well, yeah. Manchin is as much a Republican as McCain, and seems happy to become another stooge for Putin.
Pee Pee the traitor is a Democrat. Can you believe it?
"Oops"? or "The First Installment Payment to Texas Energy Partners"?