Churn III

The confirmation hearings never end
as Trump restocks his leaky cabinet.
He shuns the experts, looking for a friend
whom he'll piss off by harping on old debt.
They only took the office for the perks
and never dreamt to serve their fellow man
no "team of rivals", just a bunch of jerks
who'll rob the public any way they can.
Full forty scaramuccis, Rex slogged through
an engineer, ill-suited to the job.
It seemed the patriotic thing to do
to play the grown-up, shepherding Trump's mob.
Three years to go! If all persists this way,
we'll each be Secretaries--for a day.

Rexit

Rex Tillerson's been cut, he's free to speak
about dysfunction on  the top-most shelf
a president who can't seem not to leak
has nobody to blame, if not himself.
Mike Pompeo's a creature of Charles Koch
without the gravitas of Condi's man.
for want of gag-reflex, he'll never choke
or titter at his boss' spray-can tan.
The least effective Secretary yet
has gutted the bureaucracy at State
but Pompeo's a worse-than-even bet
to make America a lot less great.
Trump's butler's watched as hundreds come, and go.
The competent ones shun this sordid show.

limits

Of those who look imploringly to Pence,
scant few embrace his Hoosier Christian cult.
The rest hope for a whiff of competence;
the Oval Office calls for an adult.
Our twenty-fifth amendment's grand of breadth,
but noticeably lacking in details.
Transition's clearer when there's been a death,
but no one's sure what ousting Trump entails.
That "fucking moron" Tillerson can't stand
may yet have allies on Capital Hill.
To strip him of his office, and command,
McConnell'd have to show uncommon will.
The horrors of a Pence presidency
at least fall short of launching WWIII.

Powell's heir

Rex Tillerson's got no use for his boss
what he constructs, that fucking moron breaks.
The anti-Midas, turns all things to dross
and barters rare originals for fakes.
He's only stuck it out this long for Mike.
But--for is part--he wants governor Pence
to do more than stick fingers in the dike
and testify to Trump's incompetence.
The 25th Amendment's all the rage
as scholars grasp at any floating straw
to save us from the latest Trump outrage
the remedy's untested, but it's law.
Reluctant Brutus weighs his loyalties
as our republic totters to her knees.

insecure

Rex Tillerson's the best that Donald's named
outstanding in the company he keeps
a better man than he would be ashamed
a veritable prince among these creeps
Trump's cabinet disdains to regulate
they long for broad horizons, a wild West
in Trade, or Education, even State
the Donald's confidant he knows what's best
unfettered and unsupervised to boot
invoking magic of the "Market Force"
regressing to the age of Hawley-Smoot
he'd hand the profiteers keys to the source
this cabinet's stocked from the bottom shelf
'cause he'll hire no one smarter than himself