Tune out the noise

When news stories come out of Washington, D.C., sometimes the smartest thing to do is just ignore them.
That’s true of much of the speculation about the chances the U.S. Senate will confirm President Obama’s choices to head the Defense Department, the State Department, and the Department of the Treasury.
There’s been plenty of political noise about the president’s cabinet choices, but that’s all it is: Noise.
It’s virtually unheard of for a president’s cabinet nominees to fail to receive the necessary votes for Senate confirmation. And it’s a virtual certainty that Chuck Hagel will be approved at Defense, John Kerry at State, and Jack Lew at Treasury.
To be sure, there will be plenty of speechifying and posturing for the cable TV cameras between now and then. But confirmations will occur, barring some as-yet-unknown scandal erupting.
Kerry’s confirmation is the most assured, though Republicans will take the opportunity to attempt to drum up outrage over the loss of American lives at Benghazi. The fact that many of those second-guessing security arrangements voted to reduce funding for security arrangements seems to get lost in the shuffle.
Republican opposition to Hagel — a Republican, but apparently not the right flavor of Republican — seems to stem from the fact that he was right about the foolishness of our military adventurism in Iraq and the fact that he broke ranks to support Barack Obama over John McCain in 2008.
But Hagel’s positions are close to those of the president, and it only makes sense for cabinet members to share the president’s point of view. That’s not to say cabinet members should be yes-men, but neither should they be ideological opposites.
As to Lew, as best we can tell, Senate Republicans are unhappy about the nomination because Jack Lew is a tough, smart negotiator. They want somebody more pliable apparently. The president, it appears, wants someone tough and smart when it comes to dealing with the Congress on fiscal matters. There’s nothing wrong with that.
On balance, this has all the makings of an inside-the-beltway story. It will keep the talking heads busy on TV for a few weeks, but that’s about all it’s good for. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]