House and Senate Republican leaders should also signal that they will not allow Trump to install these two unfit characters through any backdoor method. Congress should not allow itself to go into “recess” in any way that would allow Trump to put anyone in office without Senate approval.

My colleague Tom Rogan already explained why Gabbard has no business being the head of the nation’s intelligence apparatus.

“If Gabbard is approved,” Rogan rightly writes, “Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will have an ideological sympathizer holding the keys to the crown jewels of American intelligence.”

A far-leftist who supported socialist Bernie Sanders for president, Gabbard is so hostile to US intelligence that she advocated gentleness for traitors Edward Snowdenwho leaked massive amounts of classified US information and then defected to Russia.

Gaetz is even worse. Regardless of the technical legality, or lack thereof, of Gaetz partying hard with late teens and his payments to a friend who was admittedly engaged in sex trafficking with minors, these feats alone make him what Alexander Hamilton meant when he warned against the Senate’s approval of “unfit characters” for executive or judicial posts. For several reasons, conservative former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy called Gaetz an “unconfirmed” conspiracy theorist, and he is clearly unqualified as a lawyer who barely ever practiced law. disciplined at least three times of the Florida Bar and was arrested on charges of driving under the influence.

Trump’s nomination of this despicable scoundrel is an affront to the public and to the Constitution.

In fact, Gaetz is so outrageously unfit that Republican senators shouldn’t even let him reach the starting gate. He is a rare candidate whose disqualifications are so well known that no hearing is needed to know that he deserves rejection. Obviously, no Democratic senator will vote to confirm him, so it only takes four Republicans in the new Senate to block him. Ten times as many should immediately announce that they will vote against him. After all, a president is supposed to make appointments with the “advice and consent” of the Senate. Since Trump apparently did not consult senators before announcing Gaetz, they should feel no obligation to give even the pretense of considering consent.

Even with too many politically unscrupulous people serving in the Senate, the odds are high that neither Gabbard nor especially Gaetz will be confirmed. The bigger concern is that congressional leaders will fail to stop Trump from giving one or both of them a “stay appointment” that could put them in office for months or longer without being formally confirmed. Trump is already demanding that the Senate creates the conditions, among limited procedural alternativefor travel appointments across the board. Senators should not follow it. To do so would both abrogate themselves and their own independence, constitutional authority and responsibility and also disservice all the constituents who voted for them to exercise the vested powers.

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Conservative constitutional law scholar Ed Whelan reports backroom discussions that Trump is considering an extremely rare use of a constitutional clause that would, in “extraordinary circumstances,” allow him to force both houses of Congress to adjourn indefinitely. Such a move would mean a dangerous increase in executive power. As Whelan notesnot even Trump could do this without the cooperation of the House leaders. They should not follow. If they do, they will be complicit in directly undermining constitutional intent and discarding the checks and balances that are essential safeguards against tyranny.

A majority of voters chose Trump as president, not emperor. Any member of Congress who helps enable his drive toward imperialism will betray their oaths of office. Their shame should be eternal.