The sum-total impact of the confirmation hearings

There have been some deliciously telling moments from several of them, have there not?

Betsy DeVos's answer to Bernie Sanders about the efficacy of a policy of making public universities tuition-free, in which she said that while that was an "interesting idea," we must remember that nothing is actually free.

James Mattis's response to a question about people with unorthodox sex lives in the military being made to feel validated, in which he said that his one and only concern was making sure that the United States had a fighting force of such lethality that it could defeat any threat.

Mike Pompeo's responso to Kamala Harris's idiotic line of questioning, embedded within a preening diatribe, about his views on "climate change," in which he said that his focus would be on his agency finding out what America's enemies didn't want it to know.

Scott Pruitt's forthright assertions that he looks askance at the federal waiver that lets California have tighter car emission standards than the nation as a whole.

In each case and in all the others, it is clear that the Freedom-Haters are in full cornered animal mode.

It's not just the specific scenarios they have posed to the appointees.

They know their era has come to an end, that this is a shift of historic proportions, like 1824, or 1960, or 1932, or 1980.

One way to put it is that they speak of these people heading departments and agencies that they would actually like to see dismantled as if it's a bad thing.

Readers of this site know I am no fan of Squirrel-Hair. A scroll-through of posts in the "Donald Trump" category makes that quite clear.

But the one thing he has got right so far is these picks.

Whoever has his ear about this needs to stick real close to him.