By S.A. Miller - The Washington Times - Tuesday, December 13, 2016
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees are headed for brutal confirmation
hearings, and his choice of ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of
 state is shaping up to be the most grueling, but history shows that the Senate
 rarely musters the nerve to reject Cabinet picks.
Only nine Cabinet nominees in U.S. history have been defeated in committee
 or Senate votes, although 12 others have been withdrawn in the face of strong
opposition. The last time a nominee was defeated outright came in 1989, when
former Sen. John Tower, President George H.W. Bush’s pick for defense secretary,
 went down in a party-line vote in a Democrat-majority Senate.
Nearly every one of Mr. Trump’s nominees has encountered objections from
Senate Democrats, from accusations that his pick for the Environmental Protection
Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, is anti-environment to charges
 his choice to head the Labor Department, fast-food titan Andrew F. Puzder, is anti-worker.
The expected nomination of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry for secretary of energy
 met opposition from Democrats and liberal groups that noted he once proposed
 eliminating the Energy Department.
Mr. Tillerson encountered the stiffest opposition yet, including from several
Republican senators who said they share Democrats’ concerns about his close
 business ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In the past, however, nominations were more likely to be derailed over
 personality than policy
.