How to pwn Moscow Mitch

Unless we get very lucky with the few remaining uncalled Senate races, it looks as if we will not get the Senate majority, though we should have at least 48 seats (a net gain of one).  This could be a serious problem, given the Republicans' propensity for obstruction.  However, Electoral-Vote blog today suggests an intriguing idea to work around this:

Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Richard Burr (R-NC) have all announced that they will not seek reelection in 2022. Biden could offer one or more of them cabinet positions. It just so happens that all three of their states have Democratic governors. In Pennsylvania and North Carolina, the governor appoints the new senator, who would surely be a Democrat. In Wisconsin, there is a special election, which a Democrat would have a decent shot at winning.

Picking off a couple of Republican senators and putting them in the cabinet would be a twofer for Biden. First, it could change control of the Senate. Second, it would please those voters who see bipartisanship as a goal unto itself. Needless to say Mitch McConnell would be beyond furious at such a move, but Toomey, Johnson, and Burr would be looking out for themselves, not for McConnell. Toomey is a former banker. He is not especially Trumpy and seems like a decent person. He likes to keep a bowl of Hershey bars (which are made in his state) well stocked for chocolate-loving senators. Making him secretary of the treasury would enrage many Democrats, but if the tradeoff was getting control of the Senate in return, Biden might do it. Johnson was a former businessman and might accept the position of secretary of commerce. Burr sold lawn equipment for 17 years before running for the House. There is no secretary of lawn equipment. Lawns are plants, so maybe secretary of agriculture? Or since lawns are often located near houses, how about secretary of housing and urban development. After all, the current secretary is Ben Carson, whose only qualification is that he used to live in a house. Burr is slightly toxic on account of some insider trading stuff earlier this year, but most people (1) don't know what insider trading is and (2) don't know that Burr did it. Burr might take the job to rehabiliate himself.

Could a desperate McConnell block a vote on their confirmation? Yes, but they have a countermove: resign from the Senate on Feb. 1. If the Senate were 52-48 and Toomey and Burr resigned and were instantly replaced by appointed Democrats, the Senate would be 50-50 and the new president of the Senate, Kamala Harris would have something to do all day. This scenario definitely falls under the category "hardball," which is not Biden's preferred way of operating. He might think that he can reason with McConnell and work together with him, but if he goes down that road, he will quickly discover that it leads to a dead end.

I really wish Biden would go for this option. Unless we do improbably well in the remaining undecided Senate races, it's the only way to get a majority -- and even if we do, there are advantages to having a bigger majority.  Yes, some Democrats would dislike having Republicans in cabinet posts (even second-tier posts like these), but taking the Senate majority would be well worth it.

It would serve Moscow Mitch right to get out-hardballed by Biden. And I still don't believe Biden has any illusions about being able to work productively with Republicans, despite what he said during the campaign. He was right there in Obama’s administration for eight years. He's seen what they’re like.

And it would be an especially good move because it would appear bipartisan, thus appealing to the low-information kumbaya-warbling can't-we-all-just-get-along crowd, while in fact doing to McConnell's power what Joni Ernst is known for doing to hogs.

Would Republicans froth with rage and accuse Biden of playing dirty?  Of course, but who cares?  Outrage is their normal default state when any Democrat does pretty much anything, and after four years of cowardly enabling of Trump's atrocities, they're in no moral position to object to anything we need to do to fix it.  We got mad about Merrick Garland and all sort of other things, and the Republicans just went full steam ahead because they had the power to do so.  Time for us to take the same tack.

And frankly I find the impotent rage of enemies quite entertaining.