In what Politico terms the "Garland treatment," Senate Democrats are determined to actually do their job and thoroughly vet and resist Donald Trump's cabinet appointments. Given that Trump's cabinet appointments are gross perversions of government, that's hardly the equivalent of the Republican blockade of an immensely qualified Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, but Politico does like their Democrat-bashing. The article itself allows Democrats to justify and explain their plans.

Democrats argue that some of the president-elect’s more controversial Cabinet picks — such as Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Steven Mnuchin for treasury secretary — demand a thorough public airing. “They’ve been rewarded for stealing a Supreme Court justice. We’re going to help them confirm their nominees, many of whom are disqualified?” fumed Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). “It’s not obstruction, it’s not partisan, it’s just a duty to find out what they’d do in these jobs.” […] "I don’t want to needlessly prevent President Trump from being successful,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.). “But accelerating the confirmation of unacceptable candidates who have views that are outside the mainstream is not constructive.” […] “I’ve heard no conversations about the kind of obstruction that Mitch McConnell specialized in,” said another endangered Democrat, Claire McCaskill of Missouri. “But there may be some where there are real questions about their qualifications and some of the things in their backgrounds.”

The only Democratic senator apparently not on board with the idea that Democrats have to make sure that the people Trump nominates be proven qualified to serve is Joe Manchin. Big surprise. He needs to just leave the party. Yesterday.

Unless some Republicans decide that they're going to finally break with Mitch McConnell, Democrats can't actually block any of the nominees under current rules, other than for the Supreme Court (unless McConnell decides to change the rules on SCOTUS nominations to allow a simple majority). But they can use committee hearings and procedural delays on the floor to make sure that the American public knows exactly what Trump Republicans are doing to this country. Like putting Ben Carson in charge of anything.

The big difference here between what they plan and what Republicans have done to Garland is that they'll be doing their fucking job.