For 16 months, Democrats have complained that Republicans have put their political party over the best interests of the country by rationalizing and normalizing the unbecoming behavior of Donald Trump. We’ve often agreed with those assessments. Republicans, sadly, have made a habit of putting partisan politics over the national interest in their fealty to Trump.

Developments surrounding the nomination of Mike Pompeo to be secretary of state, however, reveal Democrats’ high-minded complaints to be little more than posturing. Senate Democrats are playing political games with a highly qualified nominee. That alone is irresponsible. That they are doing so after complaining for a year about State Department vacancies and the resultant crippling of U.S. diplomacy reveals a deeply cynical mendacity. That they’re doing so while the Trump administration faces an array of high-stakes challenges—Russian aggression, Iranian nukes, Syrian slaughter, North Korean threats, Chinese expansionism—is disgraceful.