Posted on 05/30/2019 6:51:11 AM PDT by Jaysin
Anyone who thought Mitch McConnell was going to give up a prized Supreme Court seat purely for the sake of appearances hasn’t been paying attention.
With four words and a proud smile, the Senate majority leader this week confirmed what those who have watched him closely have long understood to be true: If a vacancy on the high court occurs in the election year of 2020, the Republican majority that McConnell leads would vote to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee. “Oh, we’d fill it,” McConnell said in response to a what-if question about the Supreme Court during an appearance in his home state of Kentucky.
McConnell’s assertion is likely to come as worrisome, if unsurprising, news to liberals who fear for the health of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the 86-year-old justice who has no plans to retire but who has endured multiple falls and cancer scares in the last decade. It also serves as a reminder to Democrats musing about eliminating the legislative filibuster that the same option could be open to Republicans, and the Senate leader they’re hoping to topple is never shy about making full use of the powers of his position—even those he has previously dismissed.
It was the first time McConnell had been that explicit about his intentions regarding a 2020 Supreme Court vacancy, and his Democratic counterpart in the Senate, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, immediately denounced him as “a hypocrite.” After all, McConnell had famously—or infamously, to Democrats—blocked former President Barack Obama’s pick of Judge Merrick Garland to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia in early 2016 on the grounds that “the American people should have a voice” in the selection of the next justice. Why, a Democrat might wonder, shouldn’t that standard hold in the final year of a Republican president’s term?
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
like him or not, Mitch is a Master Jedi Senator
This is ridiculous, Obongo was a lame duck when he had Scalia killed. It is not comparable.
I really do think this will be the spark that ignites CW II. Impeachment will be ugly but the final blow will be this.
RBG is being cloned even as we speak..................
He said he was going to repeal Obamacare when he campaigned. He wasn’t going to until Trump made them vote on it.
Answer:
We OWN the Senate, we can do whatever we want to. FU!
The attempt to paint McConnell as some effective Machiavellian schemer sure ain’t working.
If a vacancy on the high court occurs in the election year of 2020, the Republican majority that McConnell leads would vote to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee.
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Well, duh.
Anyone who thought he really meant what he was saying is a fool. If the President had been a Republican when Scalia died then McConnell would have tried to push the nomination through no matter where in the presidential electoral cycle we were.
The way he handled it was brilliant politics, by not letting it come up for discussion or a vote he allowed the squishy/RINO senators to say “Well I think we should consider Garland” without there being any danger of those senators voting to confirm Garland.
The only thing I am not sure of is whether McConnell would have held up a Clinton nomination for the whole of her term if she had won.
I will give him a lot of credit for his work on the judiciary. There are tons of sane judges now on the bench and Mitch gets credit for that.
Psssst....We won!!
RBG is immortal. She out worked me by far, at the gym last night.
Waaaaa
Rats will add 5 more justices when they get the chance to stack the court
This is ridiculous, Obongo was a lame duck when he had Scalia killed. It is not comparable.
The bigger point is simply that the constitution says to become a justice the president and the senate have to agree to place you on the court.
In 2016 the prez and senate did not agree on the nominee. In 2020 the prez and the senate will agree on the nominee.
The American people chose to keep the senate in GOP hands in both 2016 and 2020. The Dems should criticize the American people for this if they want to.
Not going to happen. This is no more than McConnell getting up his KY base for his campaign. Even if he would do it, Romney, Collins, McAsskill and at least one or two others would insist on following the Biden rule. O
Having metastatic pancreatic cancer is not a "cancer scare".
The thought of TWO Clinton Supreme Court Justices is too scary to even consider. Our country would, effectively, be done.
Powerful article and worth the read for those interested in some unbiased understanding of this kind of stuff.......
like him or not, Mitch is a Master Jedi Senator
Not really. The Romney wing of the party will never allow a genuinely conservative nom in an election year. Senator Mitch “We will repeal Obamacare root and Branch” McConnell can run his mouth in the beltway theater as much as he wants. But in the end is just talking tough while letting the progressive mavericks roam.
I will give him a lot of credit for his work on the judiciary. There are tons of sane judges now on the bench and Mitch gets credit for that.
Credit for what? The “Trump” judge who forced dirtbag Acosta back into the White House? I am not counting my chickens just yet on “Trump” judges. I suspect in the end we will have more bad ones that play for team Deep State than good ones.
Not going to happen. This is no more than McConnell getting up his KY base for his campaign. Even if he would do it, Romney, Collins, McAsskill and at least one or two others would insist on following the Biden rule. O
Spot on. Senator “Root and branch” McConnell is in campaign mode here.
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