Trump’s nomination failures haven’t cost him enough

[BloombergOpinion]( [Early Returns]( [Jonathan Bernstein]( Before we forget about the [doomed nominations of Herman Cain and Stephen Moore]( for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, there’s one more point to be made about it: Oddly enough, President Donald Trump’s latest failure actually is support for my old argument that presidents (and Congress) normally use a [far-too-intrusive vetting process for executive-branch nominations and confirmations](. But surely, you may be thinking, this proves the opposite? After all, Trump seems to basically nominate people for important posts based on whims or what he sees on cable TV news. The result has been a record number of failed nominations despite a Republican Senate (and rules that require only a simple majority for confirmation), and also record levels of turnover when confirmed nominees get bogged down in scandal or otherwise prove unsuitable for their jobs. Well, yes, sort of. Trump certainly has proved that no vetting at all will produce all sorts of problems. And Trump’s effectiveness as president (not to mention the proper functioning of the federal government) has certainly been constrained by the constant, numerous vacancies in the executive branch, which in part is a consequence of failed nominations. Trump has certainly proved that his nomination method doesn’t work very well. No president should emulate it. And yet … Trump’s frequent nomination disasters also suggest, in a way, that having these things blow up in an administration’s face has very limited consequences. The cabinet secretaries who have resigned after scandals are quickly forgotten. Quick: Who was Trump’s first secretary of Health and Human Services? If you [remember Tom Price](, you’re probably in the top 1 percent of the population in terms of political knowledge — and odds are you are also a solid partisan who would support or oppose Trump in 2020 regardless of Price’s tenure at HHS. I’m not saying that there are zero costs to having nominees withdraw or resign after being confirmed, or that there are no costs in having a crook or someone unethical as a cabinet secretary. And one of the things that Trump has proved is that there are plenty of people who are willing to accept a nomination despite clearly disqualifying things in their record that can later embarrass them and the administration. Yes, there are real costs. It’s just that that those costs aren’t that large, and that the worst of them can be avoided with minimal due diligence. Cain, for example? Everyone knew that he had exited the 2012 presidential contest after a scandal; there was no need for the kind of intense examination of his record that normal administrations administer to know that he was a poor choice. For that matter, a quick consultation with a few serious Republican economists and key Republican senators would have made it obvious that Cain and Moore would face serious resistance. And the costs of selecting a bad nominee have to be balanced against all of the people interested in public service who shy away from it because the process is so difficult and just plain unpleasant. Failing to reverse the trend toward more thorough, more invasive vetting was one of Barack Obama’s significant mistakes during his presidency. I’m afraid that the Trump counterexample is going to make things even worse the next time a normal president takes office. But it shouldn’t. 1. Jessica Chen Weiss at the Monkey Cage on [U.S.-China relations and “civilizations.”]( 2. Elaine Kamarck on [electability and the Democrats]( . 3. Laura Bronner on [the media and presidential campaign kickoffs](. 4. Amber Phillips on how [Congress put itself in poor shape](  to take on the Trump administration. 5. My Bloomberg Opinion colleague Tobin Harshaw spoke with Graeme Wood about [Islamic State now.]( 6. And Saturday was Election Day here in San Antonio, so as usual I’m reporting my voting statistics. Only two items on the ballot this time: mayor and City Council. Those are two offices voters actually understand. That’s the good news; the bad news is that the off-cycle election produced terrible turnout, as expected. At any rate, this was the first election and the first two votes of this year and of the current two-year cycle. It was the seventh Election Day of the four-year cycle, and I’ve now cast 147 votes since November 2016. Yes, that’s way too many elections, and too many offices. Bloomberg L.P. ● 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Web]( ● [Facebook]( ● [Twitter]( [Feedback]( ● [Unsubscribe](