Posted on 11/27/2017 10:03:35 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
Why would Christian conservatives in good conscience go to the polls Dec. 12 and vote for Judge Roy Moore, despite the charges of sexual misconduct with teenagers leveled against him?
Answer: That Alabama Senate race could determine whether Roe v. Wade is overturned. The lives of millions of unborn may be the stakes.
Republicans now hold 52 Senate seats. If Democrats pick up the Alabama seat, they need only two more to recapture the Senate, and with it the power to kill any conservative court nominee, as they killed Robert Bork.
Today, the GOP, holding Congress and the White House, has a narrow path to capture the Third Branch, the Supreme Court, and to dominate the federal courts for a decade. For this historic opportunity, the party can thank two senators, one retired, the other still sitting.
The first is former Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
In 2013, Harry exercised the "nuclear option," abolishing the filibuster for President Obama's judicial nominees. The Senate no longer needed 60 votes to confirm judges. Fifty-one Senate votes could cut off debate, and confirm.
Iowa's Chuck Grassley warned Harry against stripping the minority of its filibuster power. Such a move may come back to bite you, he told Harry. Grassley is now judiciary committee chairman.
And this year a GOP Senate voted to use the nuclear option to shut down a filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, who was then confirmed with 55 votes.
Yet the Democratic minority still had one card to play to block President Trump's nominees -- the "blue slip courtesy."
If a senator from the state where a federal judicial nominee resides asks for a hold on proceedings, by not returning a blue slip, the judiciary committee has traditionally honored that request and not held hearings.
Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota used the blue slip to block the Trump nomination of David Stras of Minnesota to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Franken calls Stras too ideological, too conservative.
But Grassley has now decided to reject the blue slip courtesy for appellate court judges, since their jurisdiction is not just over a single state like Minnesota, but over an entire region.
Thus have the skids been greased for a conservative recapture of the federal judiciary unseen since the early days of FDR.
Eighteen of the 179 seats on the U.S. appellate courts and 119 of the 677 seats on federal district courts are already open. More will be opening up. No president in decades has seen the opportunity Trump has to remake the federal judiciary.
Not only are the federal court vacancies almost unprecedented, a GOP Senate and Trump are working in harness to fill them before January 2019, when a new Congress is sworn in.
If Republicans blow this opportunity, it is unlikely to come again. For the Supreme Court has seemed within Republican grasp before, only to have it slip away because of presidential errors.
Nixon had four nominees to the Supreme Court confirmed and Gerald Ford saw his nominee, John Paul Stevens, unanimously confirmed. But of those five justices confirmed from 1969 to 1976, Stevens and Harry Blackmun joined the liberal bloc, and Chief Justice Warren Burger and Lewis Powell voted for Roe v. Wade.
Of Reagan's three Supreme Court nominees confirmed, Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy cast crucial votes in 5-4 decisions to defeat the strict constructionists led by Antonin Scalia.
George H.W. Bush named Clarence Thomas to the court, but only after he had elevated David Souter, who also joined the liberal bloc.
Hence, both Trump, by whom he nominates, and a Republican Senate, with its power to confirm with 51 votes, are indispensable if we are to end judicial dictatorship in America.
And 2018 is the crucial year.
While Democrats, with 25 Senate seats at risk, would seem to be facing more certain losses than the GOP, with one-third as many seats at stake, history teaches that the first off-year election of Trump could prove a disaster.
Consider. Though Ike ended the Korean War in his first year, he lost both Houses of Congress in his second. Reagan enacted one of the great tax cuts in history in his first year, and then lost 26 seats in the House in his second.
Bill Clinton lost control of both the House and Senate in his first off-year election. Barack Obama in 2010 lost six Senate seats and 54 seats and control of the House. And both presidents were more popular than Trump is today.
If the election in Virginia this year is a harbinger of what is to come, GOP control of Congress could be washed away in a tidal wave in 2018.
Hence, this coming year may be a do-or-die year to recapture the Third Branch of Government for conservatism.
Which is why that Dec. 12 election in Alabama counts.
We will pick up tons more Senate seats in 2018
All the sexual assaults are on the left side of the isle, Judge Moore’s situation is ONLY a political SMEAR by the global communists.
Of the approximately 25 Democrat senators up for re-election in 2018, I’ve heard about 10 are facing serious challenges.
Of the GOP seats up, almost all expect to win re-election.
So even if the Democrats split the difference, and lose 5 of their tough races, the GOP could easily pick up 5 Senate seats in 2018.
If I’m mistaken someone please point it out. 2018 looks to be a good senate election year for the GOP, even though the GOP could easily lose some House seats.
We could use it - I’m sick of McLame holding the country hostage out of a personal vendetta and who knows what nefarious payoffs.
If the republicans were smart (of course we all know they’re the “Stupid Party”) they would back Moore with everything they got on the presumption of innocence, in order to keep the seat republican.
If later more convincing evidence were to come out against Moore, they could kick him out then, the governor would then hopefully appoint a solid conservative replacement, who would later run as the incumbent in a special election.
This way you could keep the seat while still maintaining the moral high ground, and also be fair to Moore, who has not been found guilty of anything.
Just consider Senator Suzie-Q to be a RAT.
Good point....Rs will pick up 6 to 8 Senate seats. Relax folks.... long way to go.
Horrible to say but praying for an early death.
“Why are so many conservative columnists taking the charges against Roy Moore at face value...”
Yes, indeed, and that question just keeps grabbing the strings of my mind, whether it is Ivanka Trump, Jeff Sessions, Sean Hannity (people who supposedly have the ability to reason) and everyone else jumping up and down to get attention.
I think Hannity would gladly turn over the Senate if it meant him keeping his sponsors.
Now a retired military officer is running as a write in, gee wonder who is behind this. Shame on him.
Because A. They are not conservatives.
B. See A.
“Why are so many conservative columnists taking the charges against Roy Moore at face value considering how and when the accusations were made?” Exactly!!!! I’m so sick of these fakes who don’t have the courage to merely say “I don’t accept your stupid premise; do you have anything else to say, No? Then get lost.”
They want to have it both ways. Buchanan is no different.
This is what's so frustrating about our old buddy Pat.
I mean, yeah, we all know that the GOPe are actually TRYING to lose the Senate. They love to lose, and they love being in the minority and being toadies to the Democrats.
So Pat tells us this and it's like "Well, yeah, tell us something we didn't already know."
Pat says, "Well, how about something you probably haven't thought of while you've been watching the media circus and Gloria Allred making an ass of herself. It's all about the courts and Roe v Wade. That's why the false accusations against Roy Moore and the hysteria to smear him. Get a conservative majority on the court, with possibly one or two leftists leaving the court, and Roe v Wade gets overturned and goes back to the States, where it belongs."
In other words Pat is right on the money today, (Thanks Pat), and then tomorrow he'll turn around and say something hateful about Israel.
Gotta give the guy credit half the time, one would suppose.
Smart people like Bannon know and I know what can happen in the primaries. That is where the action is. We will see.
So all conservatives have to do to nullify the candidacy of a Liberal is level charges of sexual misconduct! Wow! Who knew it was this easy!
So all conservatives have to do to nullify the candidacy of a Liberal is
level charges of sexual misconduct! Wow! Who knew it was this easy!
****
Yep, Forget the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ aspect.
Why would Christian conservatives in good conscience go to the polls Dec. 12 and vote for Judge Roy Moore, despite the charges of sexual misconduct with teenagers leveled against him?/i>Answer: because the allegations are BS.
You can call it creepy, but that does not negate his rights to be heard, or to hold office. If it did, 2/3 of Congress should pack up today.
Finally, to the accusers, if it wasn't important 40 years ago, it's not important today. If I believed you, which I don't.
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