Thread by @jbf1755

1/ So, the lawsuit filed by Senate Democrats challenging DJT's appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general?

It cites Hamilton -- Federalist #76.
Let's take a peek at his logic, shall we?

H/T @paul_dalen

2/ This particular Federalist essay is about the appointing power of the President.

In it, Hamilton explains the logic behind submitting executive appointments to the Senate for approval.

3/ Left to his own devices and able to appoint officers without Senate approval, a President might appoint "unfit characters."

Senate confirmation would "be an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President."

4/ What might these "unfit characters" for federal office look like?

They might be "in some way or other personally allied" to the President.
They might be people "possessing the necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the obsequious instruments of his pleasure."

5/ "[T]he obsequious instruments of [the President's] pleasure."

Boy, that Hamilton sure had a way with words when writing about politics, didn't he?

6/ The need for Senate approval would discourage the President from submitting such "unfit characters" for federal office because he would know that a "different and independent body" (i.e. the Senate) would be considering and discussing his choices.

7/ An independent Senate would discourage unfit appointments for federal office by facing the President with the very real and embarrassing possibility of rejection by the Senate, & the Senate's opinion "would have great weight in forming [the opinion] of the public.

8/ So...the actions of an INDEPENDENT Senate would shape public opinion on an unfit presidential appointment.

9/ Because of the power of that independent Senate shaping public opinion -- according to Hamilton -- a President would be "both ashamed and afraid" to propose unfit people for office, knowing that it might damage "his own reputation, and...his political existence."

10/ A fascinating line of reasoning, I'd say, with two critical cogs that make it run:

An independent Senate.
An executive who would feel ashamed to bring unfit appointees forward.

11/ The lack of the latter makes the former that much more important.

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