OPINION:
An intriguing fact about the fate of Richard Grenell, President Trump’s nominee for Ambassador to Germany, was revealed Tuesday on the Hugh Hewitt Show.
Hewitt began an interview with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) with a question on the fate of Grenell’s nomination:
Hewitt: Rick Grenell not getting confirmed is an embarrassment. Jens Spahn is going to be the new chancellor, and we don’t have an ambassador over there, and Rick is the perfect guy. Would you go to the leader and get that scheduled?
Graham: Yes, I agree with you.
Hewitt: Will you go and ask him to get it scheduled?
Graham: Sure.
Hewitt: 30 hours is not too much to ask to have the most powerful non-nuclear nation in the world have an ambassador. I just can’t get over this. Is there a hold on him, Senator Graham?
Graham: Yes, I think so.
Hewitt: And who would be the author of that hold?
Graham: Can’t tell you. Don’t know. You don’t have to disclose them.
Hewitt: And so would you be willing to push for a break in that tradition on that? This is dangerous, actually.
Graham: I’ll go to Mitch. Your point is well taken. And one thing you can do is you can push out somebody that has a hold. If you actually bring it to the floor, you smoke them out.
Grenell is one of over one hundred Trump nominees who have been approved in committee and are waiting for a floor vote to finalize their confirmation.
Chris Bedford at The Daily Caller wrote earlier this week that Senate Republicans should force each nomination for a floor debate thus trapping Democrats in DC for tedious senate procedures rather than having the luxury of campaigning in their home states in the months before the critical mid-term elections this November:
On Friday, while 26 Senate Democrats up for re-election went home to their states or elsewhere to speak and raise money with which to batter Republicans in November, 139 of the White House’s nominees languished in positions from undersecretary for arms control and international security affairs to director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.
According to the Senate rules Democrats and their Republican enablers love to cite, they have to wait 30 hours after ending debate. This has turned into three or so nominees confirmed a week, averaging 79 days a nominee, with McConnell himself griping that at this rate, it will take 11 years to confirm Trump’s nominees.
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So why is Grenell being held up? Is it just part of the Schumer-led Democrats’ blanket obstructionism? Or is there something more at play here?
Grenell, the former spokesman for the allied coalition in Iraq, and spokesman for the US Ambassador to the UN under President George W. Bush, also happens to be an openly gay conservative Republican.
And Democrats can’t have that.
Hewitt took to Twitter to lay out the dangerous nature of Democrats playing identity politics with this critical diplomatic post:
Who’s got the “hold” on @RichardGrenell…and why are they screwing w/ national security. B/c (1) he’s gay and that doesn’t fit D narrative 2) he was mean to them on @Twitter (3) doesn’t think the most important non nuclear country on planet is a priority? https://t.co/9FjgtEAKvf
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) March 8, 2018
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No matter the crass political reason, it’s time for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to open debate and call a vote on Grenell’s nomination. The Germany is to critically important to go without a permanent ambassador and President Trump deserves to have his choice confirmed.
McConnell needs to force Democrats to go on the record explaining their opposition to an eminently qualified diplomat who also happens to be gay.
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