By Tom Hicks
I’m going to admit something right up front: this one really pisses me off. Not simply because Todd Blanche was confirmed as Attorney General. By Saturday morning, nobody following this administration should have been stunned that another Trump loyalist managed to scrape together enough Republican votes. What got me was Bill Cassidy.
Cassidy had serious concerns about Blanche, and he acknowledged them. He knew Blanche had already done things while serving as acting Attorney General that made members of his own party question whether he could run the Justice Department independently. Then he voted to confirm him anyway, and part of his reasoning was essentially this: the next guy Trump sends us might be worse.
That’s one of the shittiest reasons I can imagine for confirming anyone to be Attorney General of the United States. Coming from Bill Cassidy, it gets worse.
THIS WASN’T A HYPOTHETICAL
The Senate confirmed Blanche 50–49 in an overnight vote early Saturday. Every Democrat opposed him, Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joined them, and Mitch McConnell didn’t vote. Cassidy’s yes vote gave Blanche exactly what he needed. SOURCE: U.S. Senate
And Cassidy didn’t stand up there pretending Blanche had been unfairly maligned. He said Blanche “is not perfect.” More importantly, he acknowledged concerns about decisions Blanche had already made while running the Justice Department and suggested that another nominee from Trump might not be any better. Read that again, because the standard wasn’t Todd Blanche has demonstrated that he deserves to be Attorney General. It was drifting dangerously close to Todd Blanche may be the least bad Attorney General Trump is willing to give us. SOURCE: Associated Press
Those are two very different fucking standards.
BLANCHE HAD ALREADY GIVEN THEM A RECORD TO JUDGE
This wasn’t a Senate trying to predict what an unfamiliar nominee might do once he got behind the desk. Blanche was already acting Attorney General, and among the issues dogging his confirmation was the Justice Department’s $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, created through the settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS. That settlement also produced extraordinary protections involving tax scrutiny of Trump, members of his family and his businesses, and the backlash became serious enough that Republican senators demanded changes before Blanche’s nomination could move forward. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Justice
Susan Collins looked at that record and decided she couldn’t support him. Her explanation was refreshingly uncomplicated: she called Blanche a capable lawyer but said his actions had further eroded the Justice Department’s independence, specifically citing the IRS protections and the Anti-Weaponization Fund. Lisa Murkowski reached the same ultimate conclusion. No. Cassidy looked at essentially the same evidence and found himself worrying about who might come next. SOURCE: Sen. Susan Collins SOURCE: Associated Press
That would already be enough to make his vote infuriating. Then you remember something about Bill Cassidy: he lost his Republican primary in May. Trump had backed an opponent, Cassidy finished third, and his reelection campaign was over. His Senate career will end with this term. Trump had already exacted whatever political revenge he was capable of exacting. SOURCE: Reuters
Cassidy had finally reached the place senators supposedly dream about when they talk about voting their conscience. Electorally, he had nothing left to lose.
And he still wouldn’t say no.
BLIND SPOT IS FOR THE PART OF THE STORY THAT DOESN’T FIT IN THE HEADLINE.
If you’re a free subscriber, upgrade now to continue reading. If you haven’t subscribed yet, join us because Todd Blanche getting confirmed is the news. What Bill Cassidy’s vote tells us about the United States Senate is the Blind Spot.
🔒 PAYWALL
SO WHAT THE HELL WAS CASSIDY AFRAID OF?
This is where the usual excuse falls apart. Whenever a senator makes an indefensible vote, somebody eventually explains the political realities to us. You have to understand his state. You have to understand the primary. You have to understand Trump’s hold on Republican voters.
Fine. Politics exists. Senators want to stay senators. I’m not naïve enough to believe electoral considerations disappear just because someone puts on a flag pin and walks into the Capitol. But Cassidy’s election was already over. He lost. Trump couldn’t threaten him with a primary challenger because the primary challenger had already beaten him, and he couldn’t scare Cassidy about 2032 because there wasn’t going to be a Cassidy 2032 campaign. The political gun had already been fired, and somehow Cassidy was still ducking.
That’s what turns one lousy confirmation vote into something much more troubling. Because if fear of Trump’s retaliation was no longer enough to explain Cassidy’s behavior, then maybe we’re looking at something more deeply embedded than ordinary political cowardice. Maybe the habit of submission remains after the threat is gone.
THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE EASIEST NO OF HIS CAREER
Think about how rare Cassidy’s position was. He could vote against Blanche and go home to Louisiana when his term ended. No angry donors could cost him another race, no presidential endorsement could be yanked away, and there wasn’t a next Republican primary left for a Truth Social post to wreck. Cassidy was free. Actually free.
That matters because retiring and defeated politicians love talking about freedom. Suddenly they’re statesmen, suddenly they can finally say what they really think, and the shackles of electoral politics fall away just long enough for us to prepare ourselves for breathtaking acts of principle. Well, here was one. A nominee for Attorney General had already compiled a record serious enough to alarm Republican senators, Cassidy himself acknowledged the problems, and the nomination was hanging by a thread. All he had to do was say no, send us someone better.
Instead, his reasoning included concern that Trump might send somebody worse. What the hell do you do with that?
THE PRESIDENT DOESN’T GET TO MAKE THAT THREAT
There’s a really simple answer to “What if the next nominee is worse?” Vote no on that asshole too. Seriously. This is where Washington manages to take something incredibly simple and wrap seventeen layers of bullshit around it until everybody forgets what the institution is actually supposed to do.
The Constitution gives the president the power to nominate major executive officers. It gives the Senate a separate role: advice and consent. The framers deliberately created shared appointment power rather than allowing the president to fill these offices alone, and there’s no footnote saying unless the president gets irritated and threatens to send over somebody worse. SOURCE: U.S. Senate
Trump nominates Blanche, the Senate can say no. Trump nominates somebody worse, the Senate can say no again. Trump nominates a raccoon wearing a MAGA hat and carrying a copy of the Federalist Papers upside down, the Senate can say no to the raccoon too. That’s the fucking job, and the president doesn’t acquire additional appointment power just because senators get exhausted saying no.
“THE NEXT GUY MIGHT BE WORSE” ISN’T PRAGMATISM
I understand the argument Cassidy was making. Blanche is an experienced lawyer and former federal prosecutor who knows Trump personally, and supporters argue that relationship may give him enough credibility to tell Trump when something can’t legally be done. Cassidy himself suggested Blanche understands the legal boundaries of the office and may be able to push back when necessary. SOURCE: Associated Press
Okay. Make that argument. If you believe Todd Blanche is qualified, say so. If his mistakes have been corrected, explain why. If his experience outweighs the legitimate concerns about Justice Department independence, defend that. That’s advice and consent.
But once “the next person could be worse” becomes part of the justification, something has gone badly wrong. Now the president doesn’t need to persuade senators that his nominee is acceptable. He only needs to make them frightened of the alternative. Hostage-takers negotiate that way: give me what I want or the next thing coming through the door is worse. The Senate isn’t supposed to operate off a ransom note.
CONGRATULATIONS. WE’VE INVENTED LET’S MAKE A DEAL: CABINET EDITION.
Imagine applying Cassidy’s standard anywhere else. A surgeon has demonstrated questionable judgment, but we let him operate because the hospital might hire a worse one. A pilot has frightened half the passengers during his trial flight, but we put him in the cockpit because God knows who the airline has sitting in the break room. You’d think we had lost our fucking minds.
Yet somehow Washington puts a suit on the same reasoning, adds the phrase “political reality,” and everyone nods thoughtfully. No. The office is Attorney General of the United States. The person holding it leads the Department of Justice and oversees federal law enforcement. “Could be worse” isn’t a qualification. It’s what you say about the motel room you reluctantly accept because everything else near the interstate is booked.
THE REAL BLIND SPOT ISN’T BLANCHE
Todd Blanche is going to get most of the attention because he got the job. That makes sense. But Cassidy’s vote bothers me more, and not because Cassidy alone is responsible for the condition of the Senate. He isn’t. 49 senators voted no, including two Republicans who looked at the political pressure and decided they could live with it. SOURCE: U.S. Senate
Cassidy matters because his circumstances remove the explanation we’ve been using for everybody else. He wasn’t protecting his career. It was already ending. That leaves a far more uncomfortable possibility: maybe senators have spent so long organizing their behavior around Trump’s reaction that some of them no longer need the threat to be real. They anticipate it, they accommodate it, they make decisions around what he might do next.
Eventually, the president doesn’t have to seize an institution’s power. The institution starts handing it over in advance.
CASSIDY ALREADY PAID THE PRICE
There’s another reason I have trouble giving Cassidy a pass. He knows what crossing Trump costs. Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump following his second impeachment trial in 2021, and that decision followed him for years. Trump eventually backed an opponent in Cassidy’s 2026 primary, celebrated his defeat and portrayed it as punishment for disloyalty. Cassidy lost anyway. SOURCE: Reuters
And in his concession speech, he sounded like a man who understood exactly what democratic responsibility required. “When you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to,” Cassidy told supporters. “But you don’t pout, you don’t whine, you don’t claim the election was stolen … You thank the voters for the privilege of representing the state or the country for as long as you’ve had that privilege.” SOURCE: C-SPAN
That’s a pretty good standard. Accept the result. Do the job. Go home with your dignity. Three months later, Cassidy had one of those rare Senate moments when the stakes were substantial and the personal political consequences were virtually nonexistent, and he voted yes.
THE RECORD
Todd Blanche was confirmed as Attorney General 50–49 on August 8. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski were the two Republicans voting against confirmation. Mitch McConnell did not vote.
Blanche entered the confirmation vote with a record senators could evaluate because he had already been serving as acting Attorney General. Controversies surrounding the Anti-Weaponization Fund and IRS settlement became significant obstacles to his nomination.
Cassidy acknowledged concerns about Blanche but supported him anyway, suggesting another Trump nominee might not be better.
Cassidy had already lost his May 16 Republican primary. His Senate career is ending, removing the reelection pressure normally offered as an explanation for politically cautious votes.
THE BULLSHIT DETECTOR
CLAIM:
We should confirm Todd Blanche because Trump might nominate somebody worse if we reject him.
VERDICT:
BULLSHIT.
If Blanche is qualified, confirm him because he is qualified. If he isn’t, reject him. If Trump responds by nominating somebody worse, reject that person too. The Senate’s advice-and-consent authority is not a game of chicken where the president keeps producing increasingly alarming nominees until 51 senators finally scream, “Fine! We’ll take the last guy!”
Once that becomes the operating principle, the Senate hasn’t merely lowered its standards. It has surrendered the power the Constitution gave it.
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THE PART I CAN’T SHAKE
I keep coming back to the same question. If Bill Cassidy couldn’t say no now, when exactly was he ever going to? Before May, we could blame electoral fear. After May, that explanation disappeared. Trump had already punished him, Cassidy had already lost, and his political career in the Senate had an expiration date. There was nothing left for Trump to take from him.
And that may be the most disturbing thing about this entire confirmation. Democratic institutions rarely disappear in one spectacular moment. Sometimes they weaken because the people entrusted with their powers gradually stop using them. A president pushes. A senator calculates. The senator gives a little ground. Then another senator decides resistance probably isn’t worth what comes next, and eventually nobody needs to order the surrender. Everybody already knows where to stand.
Todd Blanche is Attorney General now. That’s the headline. Bill Cassidy had nothing left to lose and still couldn’t bring himself to say no. That’s the part I’m going to remember.
ONE QUESTION BEFORE YOU GO
If senators start confirming nominees because they’re afraid the president might nominate somebody worse, what kind of nominee would they ever be willing to reject?
I really want to hear your answer.
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#ToddBlanche #BillCassidy #AttorneyGeneral #USSenate #DOJ #JusticeDepartment #BlindSpot #TomHicksMedia
This doesn't just piss me off, it enrages me. That our way of life is being destroyed on the maxim "It could be worse?" That's worse than "We've always done it this way,"
Honestly, I believe there is something that is worse and apparently, Cassidy doesn't want it revealed.