GOP Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME Maine) and Lisa Murkowski R-AK) have announced that they will vote against Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education:
GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski in back-to-back speeches on the Senate floor announced Wednesday that they would oppose Betsy DeVos’s nomination to be Education secretary.
They are the first two Republicans to break with Trump on any of his Cabinet picks, and the votes could make it difficult for DeVos to win confirmation.
If all of the Senate’s Democrats vote against DeVos, she would have 50 votes if the remaining Republicans backed her — with Vice President Mike Pence potentially breaking the tie. No Democrats have backed DeVos.
“I come to the floor to announce a very difficult decision that I have made, and that is to vote against the confirmation of Betsy DeVos to be our nation’s next secretary of Education,” Collins said from the Senate floor.
Collins specifically pointed to DeVos’s “lack of familiarly” with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, saying she was “troubled and surprised.”
Murkowski, speaking after Collins, said she had too many concerns to back DeVos.
“I have serious concerns about a nominee to be secretary of Education … who has been so immersed in the discussion of vouchers,” Murkowski said.
It’s clear that all that Betsy DeVos brings to the table are her not-inconsiderable Amway fortune, profligate campaign donations, and a desire to fund religious schools.
Beyond that, she knows as much about education as I do about Russian Poetry of the 1800s.*
*Originally, I was going to say high fashion, but I actually know more about that than DeVos does about education.†
†Specifically, I understand some of the underlying anthropological principles of fashion and cosmetics,‡ while DeVos lacks even these basics, not understanding the differences between growth and proficiency in education.
‡Fashion and cosmetics mimic the biological cues for arousal. High heels make a woman look like she is ready to be mounted, the use of Belladona to dilate the pupils in the middle ages, blush mimics the flush of arousal, etc.