President-elect Donald Trump has nominated three political hacks to highly sensitive and important federal positions: Rep. Matt Gaetz to be attorney general, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to be director of National Intelligence and Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be secretary of Defense.

All three nominees have the same disqualifying characteristics: no experience in the substance of the respective agencies to which they have been nominated, and no prior background in managing an organization, let alone leading anything close to the massive bureaucracies to which each has been nominated. The only explanation for their appointments is their loyalty to Trump to serve without reservation as instruments of his promised retribution against his political enemies.

What stands between them and our democracy is the power of the Senate Republicans to block their nominations. The Senate is charged with the constitutional duty of “advice and consent” on all significant presidential appointments. The Senate’s job is to determine whether Trump’s appointees have the appropriate qualifications and temperament........

© The Hill