With anti-Trumpers regularly taking to the streets, Senate Democrats apparently opted to get in on the “resistance” action with a rare all-night floor talkathon in protest of Betsy DeVos, the president’s pick to be education secretary.
“Democrats will hold the floor for the next 24 hours, until the final vote, to do everything we can to persuade just one more Republican to join us,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Monday.
Except that all they can do is recycle the same old talking points, including gripes about her confirmation testimony.
In fact, the stunt plainly isn’t about changing any senator’s mind: They’ve already got the two Republicans who regularly vote with the teachers unions — which are, as we noted Sunday, DeVos’ true diehard enemies.
If any new Republican does switch, it’ll be thanks to private arm-twisting, not a night of nonstop pontificating by limousine lefties like Sen. Liz Warren. And absent such a flip, the final vote will come Tuesday, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking a 50-50 tie to confirm DeVos.
Again, the only real issue here is her ardent support for school choice, including public charter schools and voucher programs to help families choose qualified private or parochial schools for their kids. The unions (rightly) see choice as a potentially fatal threat to their vast power.
The all-nighter is also a bit of virtue-signaling to the Dems’ angry base that they’re really, really trying to Stop Trump At All Costs. (Maybe this will end the noisy rallies outside Chuck Schumer’s house?)
We hope DeVos gets a good night’s sleep so she can hit the ground running once she’s confirmed. The kids need her on the job at Education as soon as possible.
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