The Week: Gaetz Goes Down

• Just wait until Hulk Hogan is dispatched to do the whip counts.

• Just eight days after his nomination was announced, Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration as Donald Trump’s second-term attorney general. In Gaetz’s own words, he had become a “distraction.” That Gaetz was ever advanced is a testament to the willfulness of President-elect Trump. That Gaetz’s advancement was halted so quickly is a testament to the enduring importance of the Senate. It is proper for the chief executive to be accorded a good deal of latitude when selecting those who will carry out his agenda. But that latitude ought not to be infinite. In Federalist 76, Alexander Hamilton contended that, in such cases as there are “special and strong reasons for the refusal”—especially in such cases as the country was witnessing the “appointment of unfit characters from State prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment, or from a view to popularity”—the Senate had the responsibility to exercise its advise and consent powers and block the choice at the pass. Matt Gaetz is an unfit character in almost every way that it is possible for a nominee to be. That he will get nowhere near the office for which he had been named is a blessing—and a reminder, too, that our system of separated powers was designed for good cause. Next up: Former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, who will face ethics questions of her own but, we trust, none as lurid as Gaetz has.

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• Just wait until Hulk Hogan is dispatched to do the whip counts.

• Just eight days after his nomination was announced, Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration as Donald Trump’s second-term attorney general. In Gaetz’s own words, he had become a “distraction.” That Gaetz was ever advanced is a testament to the willfulness of President-elect Trump. That Gaetz’s advancement was halted so quickly is a testament to the enduring importance of the Senate. It is proper for the chief executive to be accorded a good deal of latitude when selecting those who will carry out his agenda. But that latitude ought not to be infinite. In Federalist 76, Alexander Hamilton contended that, in such cases as there are “special and strong reasons for the refusal”—especially in such cases as the country was witnessing the “appointment of unfit characters from State prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment, or from a view to popularity”—the Senate had the responsibility to exercise its advise and consent powers and block the choice at the pass. Matt Gaetz is an unfit character in almost every way that it is possible for a nominee to be. That he will get nowhere near the office for which he had been named is a blessing—and a reminder, too, that our system of separated powers was designed for good cause. Next up: Former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, who will face ethics questions of her own but, we trust, none as lurid as Gaetz has.