Quote:Texas Governor Rick Perry has been confirmed as the next Secretary of the Department of Energy. He was confirmed with a 62-37 vote in the Senate on Thursday.

Ten Democrats and one independent represented the wide margin of victory for Perry.

Link

I'm wondering what excuses the Democrats used for opposing Perry.

(03-02-2017 06:10 PM)bullet Wrote:  I'm wondering what excuses the Democrats used for opposing Perry.

Perry saw" From Russia with Love" four times.

Perry has always seemed like a relative light weight to me so I didn't think that Perry was a particularly strong nominee. I'm sure Trump could have found someone eminently more qualified.

I still don't understand how Trump couldn't have found something for Bobby Jindal.

Most people fail to realize that outside of the heavy hitters like State, Treasury, and Justice, the minor cabinet secretaries are glorified administrators for the president nowadays. The POTUS and their staff comes up with policy in the Oval Office and West Wing, they tell the secretary what to do, and they do it or else they're out on the street. That's what even though I'm not a huge fan of Perry, I don't really care because Trump will be the source of major energy policy in terms of regulatory policy. And given his experience as governor of a huge state that has secretly developed a large green energy industry IIRC, I'll say that he could've done a lot done worse.

Perry was a laughingstock a few years ago. Nothing has changed. I don't understand why he'd chain himself to a political fool.

(03-02-2017 07:34 PM)LeFlâneur Wrote:  Perry has always seemed like a relative light weight to me so I didn't think that Perry was a particularly strong nominee. I'm sure Trump could have found someone eminently more qualified.

I still don't understand how Trump couldn't have found something for Bobby Jindal.

I think Perry's an idiot, but he is not hostile to energy and mostly knows when to stay out of the way.

Props to Perry (seriously) for apparently handling his hearing about as well as any Trump appointee has done so far. And he avoided a potential trap question with Al Franken (who seems to have been the Senator who has gotten Betsy DeVos and Jeff Sessions in the most problems with his simple yet complex questions). Here is a snippet of their conversation during the hearing.

Quote:"Governor, thank you for coming into my office," Franken says. "Did you enjoy meeting me?"

"I hope you're as much fun on that dais as you were on your couch," Perry replies.

Franken pauses a beat and then awkwardly says, "Well..."

"May I rephrase that please?"

"Please. Please. Please. Oh my lord," Franken says."Oh my lord."

"Well, I think we found our Saturday Night Live soundbite," Perry responds, getting a laugh.

Sometimes laughter is the best medicine (although Franken still voted no on Perry, there were 10 Democratic senators who voted yes including a few fairly left-wingers like Udall of New Mexico and Carper of Delaware).

(03-02-2017 10:56 PM)oliveandblue Wrote:  Perry was a laughingstock a few years ago. Nothing has changed. I don't understand why he'd chain himself to a political fool.

Probably cause he knows a winner when he sees one.