[A CA Guy]

There are always people who will be on either side of nominees, but are you saying with past Justices the Republican Presidents knew a candidate was a clunker and still nominated them?

I don’t believe that.
I think it is more difficult, that staff didn’t do a good job of filtering or no one asked specific questions because Senators would say the Republican President gave a litmus test and that Democrats should go against Judges the same way.

[Designer]

"..are you saying with past Justices the Republican Presidents knew a candidate was a clunker and still nominated them?"

Yup.

Rocket science is not required.

For instance: (easy example) Ronald Reagan nominated Darth Vader Ginsburg, and I knew simply from reading about the hearing (in my local LIBERAL newspaper) that she is a liberal.

Why couldn't RR or my own Senator know this?

The issue here is not simply "making a mistake", but one of calculated malfeasance.