Josh Hawley, the Republican Missouri Senator from Virginia whose most famous action in his political career is fleeing from a mob he had just encouraged on January 6th, decided he wanted to fuck with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell because two former McConnell staffers have been nominated for posts in the Biden Administration as part of the GOP Senate’s deal with the administration to push through backlogged nominations, Politico reports.

Hawley lists dozens of questions for the two nominees–Andrew Ferguson for the Federal Trade Commission and Todd Inman to the National Transportation Safety Board–in a letter sent to McConnell’s office, which is a pure performance art move given that neither of the nominees has worked in McConnell’s office since at least February 2022.  McConnell has been working with Democrats to govern, not stomp his feet and hold his breath until his face turns blue as Hawley would prefer.  As part of the agreement to fill vacant positions by the end of the calendar year, the Biden Administration agreed to appoint some Republican nominees to fill positions on bipartisan panels.

“As you are aware, I am currently withholding my consent for these nominees to be confirmed without a floor vote—as is any senator’s right to do—until I and others can evaluate satisfactory responses to these important policy questions,” writes Hawley in the letter sent to McConnell’s office even though Hawley has reportedly left Washington at the end of last week, before the end of the Senate session so he could get an early start on his holiday.  Of course, given that Hawley lives in Virginia, he could easily commute into the Capitol for a vote, if needed.