Demand that Mitch McConnell respect Senate procedure and vet all prospective Cabinet members

Remember how I was telling you yesterday that Republicans in Congress were rushing to get Trump’s Cabinet nominees through their confirmation hearings without subjecting them to the standard vetting process by the Office of Government Ethics? Well, I just received a note from my aunt in Washington, D.C., who wanted to share the following with me. It comes from her friend Michele Woodard, who used to work in the Reagan White House.

As much as I enjoy hearing celebrities like Meryl Streep taking on the incoming administration, I like this even more. I like knowing that conservatives still exist who can appreciate the importance of maintaining systems, and preserving the checks and balances that have served our country so well for generations.

And, let’s remember, as I pointed out yesterday, until recently, there really wasn’t much debate about the importance of vetting Cabinet members. As I mentioned in last night’s post, at the start of the Obama’s first term, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, whose party was then in the minority, wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid demanding that, before any Cabinet nominees could be considered, “financial disclosures must be complete.” Saying that it was his party’s duty to “conduct the appropriate review” of presidential nominations, “consistent with the long standing and best practices of committees, regardless of which party is in the majority,” McConnell told Reid that more time would be necessary in order “to fairly review a nominee’s record and to make an informed decision prior to a vote.” And this letter of McConnell’s, it’s worth noting, was sent on February 12, meaning that, at the point of sending it, he’d already had a full month more to vet Obama’s prospective Cabinet members than our present representatives in Washington have had to consider President-elect Trump’s nominees. This hypocrisy, by the way, was not lost on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who sent McConnell’s 2009 letter back to him today, demanding more time to vet Trump’s nominees… Here’s Schumer’s letter.

For those of you who can’t read it, here’s a closer look at the eight points enumerated in McConnell’s 2009 letter to Reid, which has now been sent back to him.

It sounds reasonable enough, doesn’t it?

If you agree with circa 2009 McConnell, please call his office today and demand that he stay true to these “common sense standards and long standing practices.” This is especially true for those you in my family, who are reading this right now in McConnell’s home state of Kentucky. Please call his office and demand that he do the right thing, and see to it that these men and women are property vetted.

Here’s how to do it.

Just pick one of McConnell’s office numbers, dial it, and say the following:

“I am a constituent of the Senator’s. I agreed with him in 2009, when he demanded that all of Obama’s Cabinet appointees be properly vetted, and I am disappointed to hear that he does not intend to continue what he once saw as ‘common sense standards and long standing practices’ now that he is the Senate majority leader. If he does not see to it that Trump’s nominees are properly vetted, I will not be voting for him next primary season. In fact, as integrity and process are important to me, I will be contributing to the campaign of his challenger.”

And, if you don’t live in Kentucky, please forward this to everyone you know in the state, and ask them call and leave a message for McConnell. And the same goes, of course, for people who do business in the state of Kentucky, or, for that matter, people who spend any money what-so-ever in the Bluegrass State. If you were planning to visit the Kentucky Horse Park this coming spring, call McConnell and let him know that you’re thinking about spending your hard-earned dollars elsewhere. And, after calling,