Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Trump Pulls Stefanik UN Ambassador Nomination
The personnel in the Trump administration are largely inept and grossly unqualified. The nomination of Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York to the position of US ambassador to the UN would not have added greatly to that problem. She has served on the Armed Services Committee, and one believes her background with the Bush the Lesser administration would give her a pragmatism that might make US foreign policy under Mr. Trump a bit less toxic. The world will never know, though, because the White House has withdrawn her nomination. The reason is not personal flaws nor ideological disputes (she left Bushism to be full on MAGA). The administration fears the vacancy her appointment would create in the House would undermine the Republican hold on the chamber.
Ms. Stefanik does understand the situation and accepted her changed status with a fair amount of grace. On Fox News last night she said the withdrawal was "about stepping up as a team, and I am doing that as a leader. I look forward to continue serving in different ways."
She did misspeak there a little in that she is not a leader of the party. She had been the number four Republican in the House as chair of the GOP caucus. Lisa McClain of Michigan has that job now, and she is not quitting. At the same time, Speaker Mike Johnson said that he would invite her back into leadership almost immediately. Some sort of honorary position is in her future. It would not be without precedent. Nancy Pelosi made up assistant leaders and assistant speakers to get more allies involved.
"With a very tight Majority, I don't want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise's seat," President Trump wrote on Truth Social. "The people love Elise and, with her, we have nothing to worry about come Election Day." That is because there will be no election day this year for her seat.
Politico quoted one anonymous GOP consultant who explained "Republicans have traditionally done well in off-year elections and special elections because our voter coalition is more traditionally engaged voters. And now we depend more on less engaged voters and we need our folks to turn out, and it is a good wake up call that we need to engage more."
Next week, a pair of special House elections in Florida could boost the number of Democrats in the House, and that risk is the reason the White House wanted to keep Ms. Stefanik where she is.
Jacob Ogles writing for Florida Politics said
Republican Randy Fine holds the edge ahead of a Special Election for Congress. But his lead over Democrat Josh Weil falls within the poll's margin of error despite the heavy GOP tilt of Florida's 6th Congressional District.
That's according to a survey done for Florida Politics by St. Pete Polls ahead of the Tuesday Special Election to succeed former U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz [now National Security Advisor].
The results show Fine winning just over 48% of the vote, while Weil received just over 44%.
The margin of error in the poll is 4.9%, so this is technically a dead-heat. There is another race in Florida's First CD to replace Matt Gaetz, who thought he was going to be Attorney-General but is not. The race there is closing but is not as close as the race in the Sixth CD. This journal expects the GOP to win both seats, but the fact that the Republican Party felt the need to keep Ms. Stefanik in place shows that there is real fear (based on internal polling, perhaps?) the GOP majority is not going to grow.
© Copyright 2025 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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