There is a great old movie, a black-and-white classic called Advise and Consent. I make sure to watch it at least once a year, not just because of the incredible cast which includes Charles Laughton, Henry Fonda, Gene Tierney, Walter Pidgeon, and Franchot Tone, but because it is incredibly relevant six decades after it debuted in theaters. It’s about the tug and pull of politics in D.C., and a brutally honest examination of how the sausage is made.

The title refers to the process by which presidential nominees make it through the sausage grinder, the requirement that the Senate must “advise and consent” to the executive’s choices. While most Americans believe that a president should be able to fill his administration with people of his own choosing, we also believe that the legislature acts as a necessary brake on some executives’ “runaway trains.”

In Advise and Consent, the president nominates an extremely controversial candidate for Secretary of State, a man who is widely suspected of having communist sympathies. The film was made during the Cold War, so this was still a hot button issue for Americans who had very fresh memories of the McCarthy hearings a decade before. I won’t reveal the surprise ending but suffice it to say that the machinations of those who oppose this nominee cause a good man to commit suicide. 

I remember thinking of that movie when Brett Kavanaugh was being grilled by the woman who just lost the last election, treated as if he were an actual rapist instead of the target of some aging high schooler’s failing memory of “laughter” and “I think Brett was there in the room.” I was angry, because it seemed as if there was very little “advice” coming from the Senate, and hardly any evidence on which it could deny its “consent.” Fortunately, a majority of senators, including the deeply courageous Susan Collins of Maine, confirmed Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Fast-forward six years. A new president-elect, who happens to be the same president who picked Kavanaugh (what a world, eh?) has now announced that he wants a controversial congressman from Florida to be his next Attorney General. And I am grateful that the sausage grinder exists.

Matt Gaetz is virtually no one’s idea of a qualified nominee. The man is a graduate of William and Mary Law School, a fact which must have the ghost of Thomas Jefferson pulling out his sepulchral hair. He practiced law for less than two years in a civil law firm, has no criminal law experience, and was briefly suspended for not paying certain administrative fees, but was later reinstated, according to USA Today. He is married to a woman with a name that looks like it would fit on a marquis somewhere, “Ginger Lucky.” He has spent most of his adult professional career in Congress, representing Florida’s First Congressional District since 2017.

MAGA loves him, because they see him as the pit bull who will get Donald Trump whatever he wants. They are right that he is a pit bull, and that he is a Trump sycophant who will do anything within his power to ingratiate himself to the once and future president.

He is also a man who, unlike Brett Kavanaugh, has been credibly accused of sexual assault and sex trafficking. While the DOJ investigated him and chose not to pursue a prosecution, the House Ethics Committee seemed poised to issue a damning report about Gaetz’s activities, until he resigned after being picked as Trump’s AG nominee.

Some have suggested that Trump chose Gaetz to prevent him from having to deal with a highly embarrassing report. I doubt that. Donald Trump is not in the business of making life easier for other people. There is always an angle for him, in whatever actions he takes. I think that he chose Gaetz to show the country that he could. That’s it. He picked one of the least qualified attorneys in the world, to head one of the most important law enforcement agencies in the world, because he could. I also think that he chose him because he saw a devoted ally, and possibly someone who could be easily manipulated into doing what he wanted him to do. Gaetz is basically Stephen Miller, the anti-immigrant wunderkind, just with a lot of greasy hair.

As you can tell, I am not a fan of Gaetz. But even if I were, I would very much be a fan of advice and consent. While senators like Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Maisie Hirono were incredibly unfair and hostile towards Brett Kavanaugh, I respected the process by which he was vetted. Kavanaugh had the character to survive. Gaetz does not.

I sincerely hope that Trump does not try to make Gaetz a recess appointment, even though I doubt he’ll have that opportunity. The American people have a right to see Matt Gaetz in all of his gory — I mean glory — and watch as the sausage grinder does its work. Even the MAGA senators won’t deny us the show.

And until that starts, I’m going to pop in my DVD of Advise and Consent to remind myself that history always repeats itself. Hollywood just makes it look a lot prettier.

Christine Flowers is an attorney and lifelong Philadelphian. @flowerlady61

This piece was originally published in the Delco Daily Times.