…and Mary Landrieu voted today to confirm him.

The confirmation was a party-line, 54-46 vote. All Democrats were yeas, and all Republicans were nays.

But yesterday’s cloture vote was a 60-40 vote. Six Republicans crossed the aisle to allow the final vote to go forward.

Those six were Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Susan Collins of Maine, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and this wrinkled-up loudmouth.

That was, of course, part of a deal McCain and his pals cut with Harry Reid to “preserve the filibuster,” by surrendering to Reid on the worst Cabinet nominee, ever.

Reid had threatened to exercise the “nuclear option” on filibustering nominees in the Senate, which was actually a good thing for the GOP given that even despite a long train of abject political stupidity in Washington the party looks like it has a solid chance to retake the Senate in next year’s cycle. Allowing Reid to set a precedent to break the filibuster would provide an avenue to repeal Obamacare, and lots of other things, with a Senate vote – and the leverage that would impose on the president would outweigh the loss of the filibuster as a stopgap for the Senate minority.

McCain, in his idiocy, opted to preserve Senate tradition at the expense of the country. Which is typical.

How bad is Perez? Mitch McConnell and Marco Rubio picked up on some of the problems with this nominee…

“Tom Perez is more than just some left-wing ideologue — he’s a left-wing ideologue who appears perfectly willing to bend the rules to achieve his ends,” McConnell said. “This is reflective not of some passionate left-winger who views himself as patiently advancing policies within the bounds of a democratic system — but as a crusading ideologue whose convictions lead him to believe that the law simply doesn’t apply to him.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) urged his Republican colleagues to vote no because he said Perez had failed to answer lawmakers’ questions during congressional hearings.

“How can we possibly — I don’t care what deal was cut — how can we move forward on someone who hasn’t provided information asked for by a congressional committee?”

But that’s the tip of the iceberg.

Thomas Perez is the sick SOB who stopped federal funding for the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Young Marines program because that program contained a VOLUNTARY prayer stating “… I will set an example for all other youth to follow and I shall never do anything that would bring disgrace or dishonor upon my God, my Country and its flag, my parents, myself or the Young Marines.” Landrieu herself offered legislation to protect the program from Perez, she was so intent on making sure his action didn’t rub off on her re-election chances.

Thomas Perez is the clown who headed up the DOJ’s jihad against the state of Louisiana for the sin of failing to register welfare recipients to vote with sufficient vigor, despite the fact that with 84 percent of the state’s eligible adults registered to vote there is hardly anyone left to register who doesn’t want to.

Thomas Perez is the troglodyte who has attacked Voter ID laws in several states, using tactics Quin Hillyer rightly termed “racial scaremongering.”

It was Thomas Perez who torpedoed the New Black Panther voter intimidation case.

The first two alone are more than sufficient reason for Mary Landrieu to vote against confirmation of Thomas Perez. But instead, she did as she was dictated to do by Obama and Reid and voted for him.

It will be three more years before we can hope not to get presidential nominees as obnoxious and dangerous as Thomas Perez. But at least next year Louisiana’s voters can choose to have someone in the Senate who won’t vote to confirm them when we have specific reason to find them abhorrent.