Yesterday afternoon, the US Senate voted 86-13 to confirm Pete Buttigieg as Transportation Secretary, making him the first openly gay man to serve to serve in the President's cabinet.
Naturally, Oklahoma Senator James Lankford – a good Christian partisan hack who was recently in favor of usurping our Democracy – was one of the 13 "No Votes."
Via The Oklahoman_:
Oklahoma’s senators split their votes on Tuesday on confirming Pete Buttigieg for transportation secretary, while both opposed the nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas to lead the Homeland Security Department.
Sen. Jim Inhofe supported Buttigieg’s nomination, while Sen. James Lankford voted against.
Lankford supported the nominations of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin but voted against Buttigieg, Mayorkas and Secretary of State John Blinken.
A spokesperson for Lankford said Tuesday the senator believed Buttigieg lacked the experience or qualifications to be transportation secretary.
You know what, that's a fair criticism. As long as Lankford is consistent when it comes to valuing experience and qualifications for presidential cabinet positions, I can respect his weird decision to case a no vote for a man that 90% of his colleagues voted to confirm.
Elaine Chao, the secretary of transportation under former President Donald Trump, had extensive experience at the Department of Transportation and in federal government. But Lankford voted for neurosurgeon Ben Carson to be Trump’s housing secretary, and he voted for oil company executive Rex Tillerson to be secretary of state.
Ahh, never mind. I guess I can carry on not respecting James Lankford.
Obviously, since we know Lankford doesn't truly care about qualifications and experience – remember, he went from running a Baptist church camp where teens discover their sexuality to serving in congress – you have to wonder why he voted no. My two logical explanations are...
1) He's running for re-election in two years and needs to appease his uncompromisingly partisan homophobic Derplahoman base.
2) He's a card-carrying member of that same uncompromisingly partisan homophobic Derplahoman base.
Think Progress has a good breakdown of James Lankford's blatant homophobia. It's from 2014, but considering Lankford didn't vote to confirm the first openly gay man – and one who just happens to be a middle-of-the-road moderate – to the president's cabinet, it makes me think it's still relevant today.
Anyway, I guess that wraps up this little blog posting. I'm got to hop back on Twitter and troll our hypocritical Senator...
And he'd probably be alive today if good Christian men like @SenatorLankford didn't help incite an attempted insurrection at the capitol. https://t.co/DQ8oZqhzCJ
— The Lost Ogle (@TheLostOgle) February 3, 2021
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