Todd Blanche Narrowly Confirmed as Attorney General — A Trust Wider Than One Client

One client. That was the whole list in Todd Blanche's old job. As a criminal defense lawyer, his duty was single-minded loyalty to the person who hired him — honorable work, the kind our justice system depends on. Now, by the slim margin of this confirmation vote, he steps into an office where the client list runs to everyone in the country. Neither role is suspect; what changed is the width of the trust.

Paul's instructions in Titus were written for church leaders, not confirmation hearings, so they neither certify nor disqualify Blanche — and a tight Senate tally proves neither fitness nor failure, only division. But the shape of the charge travels. Paul pictures a leader as the manager of a household rather than its owner, and that distinction does real work: the wider the house, the more a steady temper, a love of what is good, and a disciplined life stop being private virtues and become public safeguards. Character is the measure precisely because the household belongs to someone else. The same accounting reaches smaller houses, too — the next time we arbitrate a disagreement at work or between our kids, we can notice whether we've quietly slid from manager to owner.

None of us knows yet how Blanche will carry this office; only time and oversight answer that. But the pattern is one most of us will walk in miniature: responsibility widens — a promotion, a fuller table, more voices counting on our fairness — and character must widen at least as fast. So we hold public officials to both edges of Paul's list, justice and restraint, while turning the same measure inward: when our circle of responsibility grows broader, would our humility be willing to grow broader with it?