Welcome To The Kakistocracy... Step Up And Take A Bow, Brian Allen Benczkowski

Yesterday America's supine Senate confirmed that they, as a body, are as kakistocratic as any other part of the Trumpist government, confirming, 51-48 Mr. Benczkowski as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice. It was a largely party-line vote, every single Republican voting to confirm this clearly unqualified freak, with every Democrat, sans Joe Manchin (D-WV), voting no. Manchin voted with the GOP, as he usually does. Not even Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Claire McCaskill (D-MO) or Doug Jones (D-AL) went along with McConnell on this. A bridge too far. I can tell you which Senate candidate votes like this will not cause even a moment's hesitation starting next January: Kyrsten Sinema, who describes herself as a Manchin supporter but is quite a bit to the right of him.

If Schumer couldn't stop Benczkowski, how can anyone possibly think he has what it takes to stop Cavanaugh? As Maddow explains in the clip up top, Benczkowski is actually part of Putin-Gate, having working to do an image makeover on the Kremlin-controlled Alfa Bank after it was caught communicating-- and hiding those communications-- between Putin and the Trump campaign. (Mueller and the FBI are both investigating Alpha Bank but apparently none of the Republicans claiming to bot be Trump rubber stamps-- Flake, Corker, Sasse, Collins, Murkowski, Moran, Paul-- thought this was a big enough deal to make a fuss over. They were wrong, probably tragically so. Is Benczkowski a Russian mole? Maybe. Is he a Trumpist mole? Oh yeah... no question.

Dick Durbin (D-IL) wrote to Trump that "unanswered questions remain about Alfa Bank that should be resolved before the Senate even considers voting to confirm this bank’s lawyer to a top Justice Department position." Sense of humor, huh?