Nominees deserve Senate deliberation … so do we

The New Year brings a “say so” for Nebraska U.S. Sens. Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts as the president-elect fills a new cabinet. Advising and consenting on such matters is part of Fischer’s and Ricketts’ responsibilities as members of the “world’s greatest deliberative body.”

We have neither the inclination nor the word count to argue the accuracy of such a boast, believed to have originated with President James Buchanan. The hope here, however, is that the tag rings true. That’s because at this iteration of the separation of powers, some of the president-elect’s cabinet nominees have kept the Beltway in a permanent raised eyebrow.

To wit: His first pick for attorney general allegedly paid for and had sex with a high schooler and bought drugs from his Congressional office, according to a House Ethics Committee report. Former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who has denied wrongdoing, wisely bowed out early. Doing so saved his confirmation hearings from taking on the patina of a Caligula-themed bacchanal. 

Despite being spared that distraction, whom the Senate confirms as defense secretary, FBI director and national intelligence boss will draw some serious attention. 

No nominee, however, will attract as much scrutiny as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., tapped to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, the agency whose policies and procedures are designed to better our lives and keep us alive, which it calls enhancing “the health and well-being of all Americans, by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services.”

RFK Jr., conversely, has been a leading voice in anti-vaccine movements based on debunked medical theories. He wisely couches most of his ideas as trying to better the health of others, a worthy cause. However, one of his lawyers filed a petition with the FDA a couple years to forgo approving the polio vaccine. Cue the large red flags. 

It is more than that, however. The anti-vaccine movement is a subset of a burgeoning anti-science faction in the U.S., which exploded during the pandemic when too many Americans took medical advice from radio talk show hosts and bloggers rather than epidemiologists and health professionals.

Separating support for RFK from the questioning of settled science requires some tortured calculus, making the RFK vote an especially hard call for Nebraskans Fischer and Ricketts. 

At least we hope so. Nebraskans depend on science — and not simply to keep us healthy in medical offices and hospitals. The state also provides the world life-sustaining food with giant machines designed to plant such sustenance using the science and technology of precision planting in fields from Falls City to Fort Robinson. 

Vaccines can also provide a sense of civic responsibility. Yes, the medicine is administered to individuals but designed to prevent major communicable diseases such as polio and measles with widespread use. Indeed, vaccinations provide the safest way to achieve herd immunity, medical protection against a particular malady. Obviously, the other way to achieve herd immunity is surviving the disease, the key there being “survival.” 

Last thing: Enough with the mandate talk … or bring some better math.

Fischer told iHeart Radio on Dec. 12 that “President Trump had a strong showing in this election. He has a mandate …” If that means a rubber stamp for all his nominees for cabinet posts, the arithmetic is flawed.

Yes, Fischer’s and Ricketts’ team won the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. But if you’re keeping score at home — and you should be — 50.1 percent of the nearly 155 million people who voted pulled the lever for someone other than who was elected president, the first GOP winner of the White House to capture the popular vote in a couple decades. 

If you include the eligible voters who apparently couldn’t be bothered, throw in those too young to vote and other assorted ineligibles, out of America’s 336 million or so souls, just 76,735,585 (at last count) of them made the decision for everyone. 

Nebraskans, however, moved the needle in the opposite direction, coming in at nearly 60 percent for the president-elect. One could argue that with such overwhelming math, Fischer and Ricketts could phone in their cabinet votes.

The problem with that take, of course, is that while Fischer and Ricketts are there to represent Nebraskans, senators make decisions for the entire country. Their advice and consent have consequences well beyond our state’s borders.

The president’s cabinet not only run their respective departments, they are some of his closest advisors, getting their appointments per Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. That kind of power greatly deserves serious deliberation.