This morning, amid the stories about the resignation of Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, a number of national news sources did a companion piece documenting the large number of departures from the Trump administration along with their various legal and/or ethical reasons for leaving. (For examples, see the Washington Post and the BBC.) The lists are staggering in their length but when you think about them, they are not surprising – the Republican-controlled Senate, which approved most of these appointments has, for the most part, abdicated its responsibility to provide its function of “advice and consent” found in the Constitution.

Senator Shelley Moore Capito may be one of best (worst?) examples – she almost always takes the nominee at their word – Acosta, for instance (see two posts down). That’s not surprising -- Capito, with her 96% Trump voting record, asserts little, if any, independence from the Republican Party leadership.

Ironically, it was Capito’s supposed independence from party leadership which our local “newspapers” heralded in its various editorials supporting her in the 2014 election against Democrat Natalie Tennant. In that election, Ogden papers regularly characterized her opponent as one who would always follow Democratic leadership. Not so with Capito, as a number of editorials* asserted. For example:

Rep. Shelley Capito, who is seeking a seat in the Senate from West Virginia, works hard to represent her fellow Mountain State residents. Sometimes that has meant going against the leadership of her Republican Party – but Capito has not hesitated to do that when she believed her state’s interests were at stake.

As I noted in a blog post at the time*, the editorial did not cite a single example of when Capito went against party leadership. This editorial became even more bizarre when it suggested that Capito would follow in the “great footsteps” of the late Robert Byrd who, according to the editorial, did not take orders from leadership. (Maybe that was because he was leadership.) Here’s the editorial’s conclusion:

Yet Tennant stands behind [Senate Majority Leader] Reid. Loyalty to her party’s leader in the Senate apparently is more important to her than walking in Byrd’s great footsteps.

In five years, Capito has become one of the most predictable Republican votes in the Senate even if it means hurting West Virginians. (See most of her votes on Obamacare, for example.) But is there any doubt who our local papers will support? (And just a hunch -- Robert C. Byrd would probably not view Capito as someone walking in his footsteps.)

*No links -- Ogden revamped their online site a few years ago and older links were lost. Additionally, my original 2014 blog post (using a different program/site) was lost with a recent change in internet protocol.