It’s more or less official at this point: After Susan Collins announced last night that she would support Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination for director of national intelligence and Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy caved on passing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. through committee as secretary of health and human services, their confirmations to the positions are all but assured. The most controversial of Trump’s nominations — Hegseth, Gabbard, and Kennedy — have cleared the bar, with Republican senators concluding that their private (and well-founded) qualms were insufficient to take a sure-to-be suicidal stand against Trump’s desires.

I once wrote a piece summarizing my position on this matter better than anything I can add right now, one which made a prediction and then asked a question: “Trump’s cabinet picks can probably get the job — but can they do the job?” I have always had my doubts, because these are difficult institutions to both master and reform — it can’t be done like carving a chainsaw sculpture out of a block of wood — and in any event I have little confidence in either Gabbard’s or Kennedy’s reforming instincts.

The president will get his cabinet. We will see if he lives to regret it, or if we all do.