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Cabinet hearings almost always tough

By Richard Robbins 4 min read
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This past week Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and realtor/investment banker Howard Lutnick underwent the rigors of the Senate confirmation process.

Both men in the course of media scrutiny leading up to their hearings were labeled hypocrites and worse by a variety of critics. RFK Jr., the Trump administration’s nominee for secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, got the worst of it, when his cousin, Caroline Kennedy, quite literally threw the family compound at him. Hyannisport is likely changed forever.

Among other things, she called RFK Jr. a “predator,” responsible for leading other members of the Kennedy family into throes of drug addiction and death. “Addicted to attention and power,” Caroline said, “Bobby … groveled” before Donald Trump in order to get a cabinet position.

Meanwhile, Lutnick received incoming fire for the role played by Newmark Group realty in marketing land in Mexico and, as the Washington Post put it, “pitching the virtues of Mexican manufacturing to American companies.”

As commerce secretary, Lutnick would be expected to champion U.S. manufacturing on American soil. Campaigning for President Trump last year, Lutnick said, “Bring the jobs back here. Bring the factories back.”

“The hypocrisy is palpable,” insisted a critic, government ethics lawyer Kathleen Clark, in the Post.

Hypocrisy is far from a novel charge for a Senate confirmation fight. It’s been around for some time. To cite just one example, back in the 1970s, a prominent Democrat, by name, Ted Sorensen, was nominated by then-President-elect Jimmy Carter to the post of director of Central Intelligence (DCI).

Recalling the affair many years later for a book, Sorensen writes, “The prize for political hypocrisy in a town noted for political hypocrisy went to” – hold onto your Democratic registration cards here – “Joe Biden.”

Yes, that Joe Biden, then a senator from Delaware and the future president!

Sorensen, who did not get the job, explains, “On my first courtesy call to his office, [Biden] could not have been more enthusiastic, supportive, and gracious, calling me ‘the best appointment Carter had made.’

“At the opening of the hearing, he changed both his tune and his tone, stating, ‘Quite honestly, I’m not sure whether or not Mr. Sorensen would be indicted or convicted under the espionage statues … whether Mr. Sorensen intentionally took advantage of ambiguities in the law or carelessly ignored the law.'”

Under fire for a rather innocuous role in support of the publication by the New York Times of the Pentagon Papers during the Nixon administration, Sorensen announced he was withdrawing his name from consideration at his initial hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Sorensen, who wrote speeches and advised President Kennedy, notes in his book “Counselor,” that Biden, “after listening to my statement of defense and withdrawal, said, ‘Ted, you are one of the classiest men I’ve ever run across in my whole life.'”

Jealously guarding his role with Kennedy against suitors for the president’s time and attention in the White House, Sorensen was not unfamiliar with the rules of Washington knife-fights. Even so, he expressed some chagrin at the roles played by Sen. Adlai Stevenson III of Illinois, an erstwhile friend, and erstwhile benefactor Jimmy Carter, in blowing up his DCI nomination.

“I spoke with the president-elect by telephone,” Sorensen remembered. “He assured me he was ‘behind’ my nomination. It turned out he was way, way behind my nomination.”

Sorensen suggests Carter sacrificed his nomination on the altar of political expediency.

None of this necessarily has anything to do with the current round of nomination hearings, except to say: This is a hard business.

Tulsi Gabbard was among the Trump nominees in the spotlight last week. A former Democratic congresswoman, Gabbard is looking to step into the role analogous to the one Sorensen would have occupied, if she is confirmed by the Senate.

With the likes of the Post’s respected national security expert David Ignatius calling her “utterly unqualified” for the job, Gabbard faces a stiff challenge. It’s reported that a handful of Republican senators, skeptical of her qualifications and past statements and actions, are not, as of yet at least, on board.

Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.

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