Posted on 04/10/2017 12:25:33 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
It's a testament to the turbulence in the global affairs and the head-spinning churn of the Trump-era news cycle that the confirmation of a Supreme Court Justice -- featuring a massive fight in the Senate -- was treated like a second-tier story last week. In case you missed it, Neil Gorsuch is joining the Court as an Associate Justice today, filling a seat left vacant by the death of Antonin Scalia in early 2016. As we covered extensively, Senate Democrats mounted an unprecedented filibuster against Gorsuch, whose credentials and suitability for the position were never in question. This was the latest provocation in a decades-long pattern of escalations on judicial nominees, during which Democrats introduced scorched-earth tactics to obstruct or ram through nominees, depending on their political interests and power status. Republicans finally punched back hard, and justifiably so. The eventual approval of Justice Gorsuch felt like a fait accompli after his smooth roll-out, and virtually flawless confirmation hearings. But the fate of his nomination was reportedly in some jeopardy as late as early last week. The Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes spoke with the Senate Majority Leader shortly after Congress' upper chamber voted 54-45 to confirm the Coloradan on Friday, detailing how McConnell fought all the way to the finish line to ensure that his enormous election year gamble on Merrick Garland paid off. Things were dicey for awhile:
In the days before floor debate began, his nomination was in jeopardy. Three Republican senators wouldn't commit to vote for the "nuclear option" to prevent a Democratic filibuster from blocking Gorsuch's confirmation. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, both pro-choice on abortion, raised the fear that ending the filibuster of Supreme Court nominee could lead to an anti-abortion majority on the court. Bob Corker of Tennessee had a different concern. He "waved the banner of tradition," a lobbyist said. He defended the filibuster as a worthy tradition of the Senate that promotes compromise and bipartisanship. Killing the filibuster in Supreme Court nominations could lead to eliminating it entirely, even in debates over legislation. McConnell insists this won't happen. John McCain of Arizona didn't threaten to bolt. But he said in a floor speech that he too wanted to protect "the traditions and practices of the Senate." Only reluctantly had he agreed to vote for the nuclear option. At the heart of the turmoil sat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. He sought to make a deal with the holdouts. If they joined all 48 Democrats and voted against the nuclear option, he would allow Gorsuch to be confirmed.
So rumblings of that terrible "bargain" were real, it seems. Fortunately, those talks hit a dead end -- with Gorsuch's sheer excellence earning unanimous support among Republicans, plus a small handful of red state Democrats. Immense pressure was brought to bear on "iffy" GOP members like Collins and Corker until they eventually signed on to McConnell's plan to use the Reid Rule to invoke cloture and move to a final floor vote. Reflecting on the victory, McConnell said that his plan relied on never blinking in the face of intra-party squeamishness and inter-party criticism:
McConnell, more than Trump or even the nominee himself, was responsible for elevating Gorsuch, a federal appeals court judge, to the Supreme Court. When Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, McConnell declared the seat would not be filled by President Obama in his last year in office. Democrats complained and Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to succeed Scalia. But McConnell prevailed. "The only issue was 'can you take the heat?' " McConnell could. He never flinched. "It is the most consequential decision I ever made," McConnell said [of not taking up the Garland nomination]. And it turned out the open seat was an "electoral asset" for Trump. Voters didn't like him or Hillary Clinton. But once filling the seat became the "principal issue," Trump had the advantage. Everyone knew she would dump Garland, a moderate, for someone further to the left. "We didn't know if the president would be a conservative or not," McConnell said. However, he had promised to pick a nominee from a list of 20 conservative jurists. (McConnell had advocated such a list.) "This reassured conservatives." The result: he got 90 percent of the Republican vote and won. McConnell gave Trump credit for nominating "the single best circuit court judge in the country. It made my job easier." He described the job as "getting all my frogs in the wheelbarrow." On cloture, the nuclear option, and confirmation, he got all 52 frogs. Rather than scrapping tradition, the end of the judicial filibuster restores a longstanding tradition of not using it against nominees for judgeships. That tradition was tossed out in 2003 when Democrats began filibustering Republican nominees.That final sentence is a key point, as emphasized by two former Senate GOP leaders in a widely-circulated Washington Post op/ed on the eve of the vote. On Friday, I drew renewed attention to my previous report that well-placed sources believe another Supreme Court seat will open up as soon as this summer, at the conclusion of the current term. Reagan-appointed Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Court's lone true "swing vote," is preparing to retire, according to the persistent rumor. I've learned in recent days that senior lawmakers are also expecting this scenario to play out, hence the urgency of advancing and confirming Gorsuch with a simple majority. Democrats have surely heard these whispers, too, which is why the aforementioned "deal" was floated. It also exposes their decision to attempt their unprecedented filibuster against Gorsuch as exceptionally foolish -- especially in light of reports that a cluster of GOP Senators were uncommitted on Reid's "nuclear option" until very late in the game.
In before the howling lynch mob arrives.
Giving credit where credit is due.
Mitch has been playing ball more than Ryan these days.
I have been brutal to McConnell over time. For eight years I watched the man have almost no backbone when it came to Obama. It was excruciating to watch.
When a guy deserves to be taken to task, I’ll do it.
When he deserves praise, I’ll admit it and do that too.
When the SCOTUS vacancy occurred last year, McConnell stood fast against an Obama named replacement. From my perspective, it was against everything I’ve come to think of him. Perhaps it was payback for what Obama had been to the nation. Maybe that’s too high minded...
What I do know, is that he protected the court, and he set the stage for a good man/woman to be nominated. Trump came along and true to his word, he named a great man Neil Gorsuch for the job.
This will IMO be McConnell’s finest hour. This was such a crucial matter, it would be wrong of me not to come here and recognize him for it.
Another FReeper mentioned this to me a while back, and he was right to do so.
McConnell made this morning’s swearing in of a good man possible.
I salute him for it.
Trump could have been sworn in with no openings.
Way to go Mitch. Thank you very much. Our nation is more safe due to your efforts.
Bullshit. The majority of Trump's voters loved the guy and couldn't wait to vote for him! This seat was very very important to me but it's certainly not the sole reason, or the deciding factor in my support for Donald Trump.
I’m with you. I pounded a whole bunch of keys on my keyboard ranting about Mitch. But I gotta give it to him here. He handled this whole thing brilliantly. From the refusal to consider Merrick Garland to the ‘nuclear’ option. Which by the way isn’t nuclear at all. The filibuster is not dead and buried but I sure wish it were. But Mitch McConnell gets a heartfelt kudos from me. Don’t get used to it Mitch...you gotta earn the next one too.
I GUARANTEE you the next time the Dems own the Senate by even ONE vote, the filibuster is nuked for ALL legislation on day one. McConnell might as well do it now and get some real stuff done for the next four years.
Mitch held serve. I think all along the Rats knew they weren’t going to win this battle to replace the most Conservative member of the Court with a liberal, the best they could do was to attempt to get leverage for upcoming picks to replace the Liberals on the Court.
Kudos to the majority leader for pushing aside Obama nominated judge and saving the seat for judge Gorsuch. And then McConnell displayed courage & skill in using the nuclear option to get Gorsuch become justice Gorsuch.
Rofl, so UpChuck Schumer, uber-arrogant Mr. Harvard grad, proved intensely stupid and short-sighted.
If he had saved his powder for the later fight, he very likely could have swayed 3 wavering RINOs to help him to preserve the filibuster. Instead, he as lost the filibuster and Ginsburg, Breyer, et al.could well vacate the court in the next 3 years.
I do so love it when the Democraps screw themselves.
Like so many of you others I am not a Mitch fan. However,
I think it is damned decent of all of you who see your
way clear to giving credit where credit is due.
Pro-life, 2nd Amendment, religious Christian, and Constitutional conservative voters are supremely aware of the importance of judges and especially Supreme Court appointments. Primarily, they aren’t necessarily Trump fans or fans of any person. They are ISSUE VOTERS who will support anyone who sincerely claims to support their cause. If Trump (or any other politician for that matter) strays too far from his stated campaign policies policies, they are easy to lose.
That said, I will still be cautiously looking out for signs of McDaniel-style racist Democrat tactics being used against Republican conservative candidates, and "Rube Goldberg" legislation that turns "power votes" into weak "votes to overturn," like McConnell did with Obama's debt ceilings and treaty votes.
-PJ
At times McConnell has infuriated me over the years, but he has a long history of being VERY SOLID when it comes to getting quality judges confirmed. His defense of Gorsuch and future Republican nominees is expected.
Another bullet we dodged.
Mitch may have made medical history too, the first time a human has ever grown a new spine.
The SC picks made me a Trump promoter. I preferred several others over Trump in the primary. After he won he had my support. When he announced his SC picks I started persuading others to vote for him. I live, work, and socialize with very conservatively people. It was never a given with any of them that they would vote for Trump even though they would not vote for Hillary. The SC pick list was brilliant. He polished the deal off with immigration control.
I and many others on this forum boiled this election down to SC picks and immigration. That’s why we are not flipping out over all the other stuff. Trump must and needs only to deliver on these two things. And so far he is MAGA!
McConnell deserves credit due. He also deserves credit for changing these rules being we have two abortionists among the Senate on the Republican side.
Roe won using fraud with a false story. How many millions killed since then? What would be the problem with overturning that back to the states for starters?
The two female abortionists were willing to put left wing justices in rather than those that go by the constitution.
Absolutely, my good FRiend, this is Mitch's finest hour.
Might a few of McConnell's fellow congressional GOPers take notice and be a little brave and assertive as well?
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