I’m taking bets that Matt Gaetz will indeed be confirmed as our next attorney. I know all the clever people say otherwise. NBC News, in a story you might want to bookmark to revisit later, reported over the weekend that more than half of Senate Republicans see no path to confirmation for Gaetz and “would not support” him. Gaetz is obviously unqualified in any legal or experiential sense, and that’s to say nothing of his photo exhibitions to his colleagues on the House floor. Putting him in charge of Justice, big-J or small, constitutes open mockery of this country’s ideals and is thoroughly insane to boot.

But don’t be so sure he won’t make it. Merrick Garland’s two-day confirmation hearing for attorney general was held on February 22 and 23, 2021. Late February is three months away. That’s a lot of time for Donald Trump to change resistant senators’ minds. And don’t think he won’t.

I’ve heard some theorizing that Trump isn’t really serious about this Gaetz appointment; that he’s willing to trade him for something else, or that he planted Gaetz as a distraction so other nearly-as-abominable choices like Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can slip through. Yes, that’s how normal politicians think in normal time on normal Earth. But none of that applies here.

My theory is much simpler: Trump nominated Gaetz because he wants Gaetz, for a few reasons. He wants to shock and offend people like us. He thinks Justice and the FBI are full of anti-Trump deep staters. He wants thousands of them to quit or resign. He doesn’t care about most of what th DoJ does.........

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