If anyone read that and understood it, I would love a summary. I found it to be written as if I already had an understanding of the history of who was nominated and when. I got totally lost as to why Biden is a threat now and am still not clear as to know if Bork was nominated or suggested.
Bork would have been a good USSC Justice.
Yes, Bork was nominated. The hearings were just awful. They brutalized the man. He was completely blindsided.
Biden is the one who mostly put together the strategy to utterly demonize a nominee for deviating from some pretend “norm” of thought. It’s been downhill ever since.
Before Bork, pretty much anyone who was nominated by a sitting president would be confirmed. The Advise and consent part in the Senate was merely to determine if the nominee would be fit to be a judge. Starting with Bork, the 'rats began to question where the judges stood on certain issues. If they didn't agree with the judge's stance, they'd vote 'no' against the nominee.
This is how we got stuck with Souter. Bush 41 nominated someone who would not reveal what his future opinions would be, so even the 'rats voted for him. Unfortunately, even Bush did not know where Souter would stand either, and he turned out to be a big leftist.
The 'rats hit a snag with Clarence Thomas. After lib Thurgood Marshall died, Bush picked a black man to succeed him, because everybody felt that Marshall's seat "must be reserved for a black man". So, Bush picks Clarence Thomas. Even though the libs did not want Thomas because they considered him conservative, they were too gutless to "Bork" him, for fear of having their own race card thrown at them. So, they concocted the ridiculous Anita Hill BS story to attempt to discredit Thomas. Fortunately, it did not work, and Thomas squeaked in.
Biden led the 'rats down the road to dishonor from Bork onwards.
Bork’s denial had nothing to do with his qualifications, it had to do with his involvement in the Saturday Night Massacre. All that stuff about renting weird videos was bullsheet. That vote was about payback.
The author stops at mentioning that it is mostly the democrats who -- to this day -- bullies judicial nominees (if they come from Republican Presidents) and the GOP just rolls over and plays dead because they still play by the rules of the "gentleman" senate... and that is why we ended up with Ginsberg.