Tracking these 662 executive branch appointments through the nomination process.
For other executive branch appointments, Trump seems to have selected nominees based on who would be the absolute worst person for any given position.
That would extend a rule change made by Democrats in 2013 that punished Republicans for years of attempts to block President Barack Obama's nominees by ending filibusters for all executive branch appointments and lower-court picks.
The White House is also considering Republicans for other executive branch appointments, a plan aides say demonstrates that Mr. Obama is serious about working with Republicans despite resistance from the party's leadership on Capitol Hill.
It's possible, though, that the recent elimination of the filibuster for executive branch appointments will make Patrick seem more attractive to Obama, and he'd be a decent if unexciting choice.
"I've been a proud guardian of gridlock myself," said McConnell in 2005, "but it never made sense for executive branch appointments".
He'd worry that doing so would lead to Democratic control of the Senate, and thus deprive him of his ability to rubber-stamp Trump's judicial and executive branch appointments.
Ford conditioned his acceptance on Reagan's agreement to an unprecedented "co-presidency", giving Ford the power to control key executive branch appointments (such as Kissinger as Secretary of State and Alan Greenspan as Treasury Secretary).
This was more popular in the House than in the Senate, because the Senate already had a wealth of executive branch appointments on which to bargain over, and what could be demanded and obtained was usually small enough that the White House and congressional leaders were willing to play the game.
On another, he's heard calling Obama a "motherfucker," and when he senses no interest from the White House in giving him an executive-branch appointment in exchange for the Senate seat, he says, "Fuck him.
