Confirmation Hearings Aren't as Pointless as They Look

Donald Trump is unusually unpopular for an incoming president. His cabinet nominees are unusually controversial. Yet we can expect few cliffhangers this week, as the first wave of confirmation hearings begin, thanks to a basic reality: Democrats by themselves don't have the votes to stop any of them. It's one long-term effect of Republican blockades against Barack Obama's judicial and executive branch nominees, which pushed Democrats in fall 2013 to end the ability of minority parties to defeat those nominees by filibuster. And cabinet selections rarely failed, and most faced minimal opposition, long before that.

The truth is that hearings for executive branch nominations, especially cabinet-level picks for an incoming president, are rarely about whether the nominee will be confirmed or rejected. Hearings are, historically speaking, primarily a part of the policy-making process in a government of separate institutions sharing powers -- as well as an opportunity for parties and individual senators to spread awareness for themselves and their agendas.