It is Senate confirmation season and as expected we witnessed grandstanding, virtue signaling, amateur theatrics, unintentional hilarity, partisan hackery, pettiness, and insanity.

Here's the other Arizona senator, Ruben Gallego, who seems to be against the deportation of illegal immigrants.

Won't this undermine Trump's Arizona mandate?

The Senators did receive a mandate from Arizonans, but to make laws and not to undermine the vote they gave to President Trump.

Let's think of a hypothetical scenario where Democrats had an overwhelming majority in the Senate.

They wouldn't have rejected most of Trump's nominees which would undermine Trump's mandate.

Another reason to abandon this confirmation phase is that cabinet secretaries aren't policymakers, all they can do is advise the president on policy. Their function is to execute the president's vision for the nation for which he received a mandate. They are subordinates who are supposed to follow orders. They are supposed to run their department efficiently to implement the president's policies.

The only vetting needed is for a criminal record and conflict of interest.

In parliamentary democracies, the head of state, the prime minister, appoints his cabinet without any confirmation.  

A Senate confirmation may work for judicial appointments since those are lifetime appointments and because their rulings can change the course of the nation. 

But the problem isn't necessarily about the idea behind confirmations, but rather the way is being exploited.

Ideally, this phase should be like a panel interview, i.e., a thorough and fact-based probe of the nominee. Unfortunately, Senate confirmation and hearings have devolved into amateur theatrics and partisan skullduggery. 

The fact that the nominees usually have prolonged meetings with Senators before the hearing makes the process even more gratuitous. If transparency is the aim, the entire meeting should be broadcast. Why would these meetings be reduced to staged time-restricted interactions that prevent thorough answers and follow-up questions?

The content of the exchange also makes the phase pointless, some questions are often on disproven claims, irrelevant topics, and voyeuristic curiosity.

Let's remember the individuals who were confirmed in the recent past. The likes of Attorney General Merrick Garland, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, etc. aren't even fit to manage a weekend picnic.  

We must also remember that the confirmation phase can also be circumvented. When Susan Rice withdrew her Secretary of State nomination, Obama appointed her National Security Adviser, which does not require Senate confirmation.

The idea of Senate confirmation hearings was conceived in an era when D.C. had honor and when Senators wanted the best for their country. As we all know, that era is now in our very distant past.

The current display is focused on creating a viral moment on social media which improves career prospects and facilitates fundraising, all of this at the expense of an individual who has stepped up to serve their country.

It is time to rethink, and perhaps even DOGE, this phase.

Image: Screen shot from YouTube video