Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate who sounded shocked by President-elect Donald Trump's selection of Matt Gaetz for attorney general must have just woken up after a months-long nap.

Gaetz, who resigned from his Florida Congressional seat Wednesday ahead of the potential release Friday of a House Ethics Committee report on his long metastasizing underage sex and drug scandal, is exactly the kind of guy Trump promised on the campaign trail to sic on his perceived enemies if he got back to the White House.

The real surprise here is the other Florida man – Trump's pick of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of State. Rubio is a former Trump critic who has given up on his old-style Republican approach to the world in favor of fawning fealty to his new boss. But he still voted to certify Trump's 2020 presidential loss.

And he has the kind of political and foreign affairs experience that makes his pick make sense, which is not something you can say about Gaetz.

The shock here is that Trump shows any tolerance for political proficiency as he assembles a troupe of advisors for what is clearly going to be a circus of vengeance, where Republicans in Congress can be crammed just as quickly into the clown car as Democrats.

Trump adores demolishing institutional norms that could constrain his worst impulses as president. There's only one thing he loves more – putting people on the spot to test........

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