Can Shaup Stir Up Four Strong Republicans?

Below is a Twitter Thread calling for four Senate Republicans to stand up to Trump.  But first a little context.

Public Accountability was one of the topics I taught. I've published a few articles and book chapters on Ombuds offices*, which serve a slightly different, but similar function to Inspector Generals.   Their jobs are to uncover waste, fraud, and abuse in government agencies.  Here's a page form the Department of Justice Inspector General website that lists ongoing work so you get a sense of things they do. These are offices that are supposed to be independent of the agencies they investigate. In Anchorage, for example, the Ombuds office is part of the Anchorage Assembly (city council), not the mayor's office. 

Trump is dismantling all the organizations that can check his power. He's already appointed two Supreme Court justices and has a five member majority. The Senate, under the leadership of Mitch McConnell, refused to even call new witnesses or ask for more documents during the impeachment hearings.

Unless the Senate is willing to take action, we're screwed. [No,  euphemisms are no longer appropriate.]

Yes, there's an election in November, but the Republicans are getting rid of or blocking enough votes to overturn a fair election. The Guardian lists five key ways they're doing that:

1. Intimidating minority voters
2. Curbing registration
3. Felony disenfranchisement
4. Election security issues
5. Partisan courthouses

Greg Palast, the Ralph Nader, of crooked elections, has a book coming out entitled, How Trump Stole the 2020: The Hunt for America's Vanished Voters.  

And then there's Fox News and their partners around the world disseminating lies, exacerbating political differences, and generally trying to destroy trust in any kind of truth.

So if the Republicans in the Senate don't stand up to Trump soon our democracy could be undone.  Recently I posted a letter I'd sent to Senator Lisa Murkowski suggesting she find five other Republican Senators who would vote no on confirmations and any other legislation that strengthens Trump or harms democracy.

Well, below is a Twitter feed by Walter Shaub, former Director of the Office Governmental Ethics making similar, but more specific recommendations.

"As Director [of Office of Governmental Ethics], Shaub was outspoken with concerns about the Trump administration during the transition period before he took office. He delivered a speech on January 11, 2017 regarding concerns with the president-elect's refusal to divest his assets and, instead, place them in trust managed by his sons.[9][10] Shaub was also the author of a series of tweets published on the Office of Government Ethics Twitter account, which gained media attention for breaking from the account's typically serious tone to mimic Donald Trump's tweeting style and congratulate him on his announcement that he would divest himself of his business assets.[9][11][12]
On April 28, 2017, Shaub issued a data call directing the White House, agency ethics officials, Inspectors General, and the White House to produce copies of the ethics waivers given to ex-lobbyists in the executive branch.[13] Writing on behalf of the administration on May 17, 2017, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney sent Shaub a letter that seemed to question OGE's authority to collect the requested ethics records.[14] Mulvaney sent copies of his letter to every General Counsel and every designated agency ethics official in the executive branch"

Here's a link to the original thread.

- call Pompeo too
- if Pompeo refuses to come, sue to enforce the subpoena
- also find him in contempt, using your inherent contempt power, to at least have that on his political record (I recommend against sending the Sergeant at arms to be gunned down by diplomatic security)

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) May 17, 2020

- announce that you will cut the White House budget to 1/3 its current level for the first quarter of FY 2021 (Oct - Dec 2020)
- to have a powerful effect, only 4 Republican Senators would need to threaten to block all of Trump's nominees until he reinstates Atkinson and Linick

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) May 17, 2020

- if the Republicans won't cooperate Schumer and Pelosi and others need to make the same level of noise Grassley would be making if he actually cared about inspectors general or if a Democrat were president
- melt the airwaves again, rinse, repeat

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) May 17, 2020

Will these things work? Who knows. But what won't work is lowering the American flag and raising the white flag of surrender. We didn't send you to Washington to surrender to a wannabe authoritarian.

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) May 17, 2020

*I choose to use the more gender neutral term, Ombuds Office, rather than the original Swedish term, Ombudsman.