Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) recently quit his job for a position he seems unlikely to get. The pro-Trump congressman resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives last week after President-elect Donald Trump nominated him to be the next attorney general. He may be looking forward to his new position, but he just set himself up to be the next Bill Weld.
Weld was a popular Massachusetts governor during the 1990s who grew bored with the job. Even though he won reelection in 1994 with over 70% of the vote, he unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 1996, losing to incumbent Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).
Then, in the summer of 1997, President Bill Clinton nominated Weld to be the next U.S. ambassador to Mexico. Weld resigned as governor to focus on getting confirmed to this post.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms (R-NC) opposed the Weld nomination and refused to hold a hearing for the socially liberal northeast Republican. Helms disliked Weld’s liberal positions on abortion and marijuana. Weld responded by publicly attacking Helms, a veteran member of the U.S. Senate.
Helms never budged, and six weeks after resigning as governor, Weld withdrew his name from consideration for the ambassadorship position. The move effectively killed Weld’s political career, as he never held elected office again. Now, the former governor wields almost no influence in American politics — not even in the Massachusetts Republican Party.
Gaetz is in a similar position. He represented an R+19 district, according to Cook PVI. He had a safe job as one out of 435 members of the U.S. House, a job he kept despite his scandals.
Most notably, Gaetz has been under a House Ethics Committee investigation since April 2021 that alleges that he may have “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”
So far, Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have expressed public dismay at the Gaetz pick, while Sens. Tom Tillis (R-NC) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) have refused to commit to supporting him. Various reports also say most Republican senators consider Gaetz unqualified for the position and think the Senate won’t vote to confirm him.
No Democrats will vote to confirm a controversial Republican such as Gaetz, and two Republicans are guaranteed “no” votes. It will only take two more “no” votes to block Gaetz, a man with countless feuds with other Republican members of Congress.
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Throw in the fact that Gaetz is one of the few Republicans in Congress who supports legalizing recreational marijuana, and he is even more likely to lose votes, especially since the attorney general has broad jurisdiction in enforcing federal drug laws.
The wise move would have been remaining in the U.S. House of Representatives during this doomed nomination process. Gaetz may have ended his political career.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
