The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Checks and Balances Work: Matt Gaetz Withdraws from AG Nomination
From Gaetz's Tweet; "the incredible support of so many" is the usual marketing-speak, whether in politics or in business, but the "thoughtful feedback" (coupled with "so many" making clear that there were others) signals the truth well, I think:
I had excellent meetings with Senators yesterday. I appreciate their thoughtful feedback - and the incredible support of so many. While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition. There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I'll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General.
Of course, it would have been better if there had been no need for checks and balances here; but it's good to see them working. (The checks here, of course, are primarily the Senate, but closely tied to the freedom of public criticism and the eventual prospect of pushback at the ballot box.)
Obligatory hat tip to good ol' Jimmy (or was it Sasha Alex?):
[T]he great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. The provision for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to the danger of attack.
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions. This policy of supplying, by opposite and rival interests, the defect of better motives, might be traced through the whole system of human affairs, private as well as public. We see it particularly displayed in all the subordinate distributions of power, where the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be a check on the other that the private interest of every individual may be a sentinel over the public rights. These inventions of prudence cannot be less requisite in the distribution of the supreme powers of the State.
UPDATE: Quote enlarged a bit, to include the first two paragraphs (I had originally started it with "If men were angels").
