the full senate. and to a certain extent, that left marco rubio with not a lot of back-up on this issue. and he ultimately decided that he was going to vote in favor of tillerson and the committee. now, it's likely that this would have gone through regardless with mccain and graham's support because, you know, they have enough republicans in the senate to ensure that. but at the same time, this will smooth the process make it a little faeser and easier ultimately for donald trump to assemb his national security team, steve. >> all right. casey hunt there on capitol hill. where again within the hour, we're expecting that committee to hold the vote on rex tillerson's nomination for secretary of state, and it does look like the committee will recommend his confirmation. for more, i want to bring in political analyst ben ginsburg. served as national council to mitt romney, george w. bush and their presidential campaigns. he is also a partner at jones day which continues to represent the trump for president campaign in it's compliance work. with that introduction out of the way, thanks for joining us. let me ask you about --