It is time.
Posted on 02/07/2017 7:16:25 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Readers will find no surprise, but also no sense of regret either from Chuck Schumer’s defense of minority prerogative in Politico today when it comes to Supreme Court nominations. Skipping entirely over the machinations he and Harry Reid employed to keep Senate Republicans in the minority from having a say in appellate court nominations, Schumer argues that his Democrats are the only bulwark standing between Donald Trump and an independent judiciary. For that altruistic reason, Neil Gorsuch will need to get at least 60 Senators to agree to proceed to a confirmation:
Nominees to our nation’s highest court must demonstrate that they are mainstream and independent enough to earn the support of at least 60 senators from both parties. Both of President Obama’s nominees to the Supreme Court exceeded that level of support. The simple question we are asking is: Can President Trump’s nominee meet that same test? If the nominee fails to meet 60 votes, the answer isn’t to change the rules; it’s to change the nominee.
This is not unfair or obstructionist—this is the Senate doing its job by critically evaluating a nominee who will have immense impact on the lives of Americans. The most important factor in assessing a Supreme Court nominee in the time of the Trump administration is whether or not the potential justice will be an independent check on an executive who may act outside our nation’s laws and the Constitution. It remains to be seen if Judge Gorsuch is able to fulfill that important constitutional role.
What’s rather remarkable about this piece — it’s short and easy to read in full — is that it barely mentions Gorsuch himself, and makes no case that his confirmation is problematic. That makes some sense, given that Senate Democrats confirmed him to the appellate court by acclamation over a decade ago. That includes every current member of Senate Democratic leadership, including Schumer himself.
Furthermore, Schumer’s essay contains exactly zero acknowledgement of the fact that his party put the 60-vote threshold on the chopping block with its own exercise of the nuclear option in late 2013. Schumer complains that Trump wants “to rewrite the Senate rules” for Republicans and “demanded” that Mitch McConnell “deploy the so-called nuclear option,” without even a note to point out that he and Harry Reid created the precedent to do so. In fact, the whole piece reads as if it’s Trump that’s getting confirmed, without a mention at all that his own party’s bare-knuckled tactics and especially Harry Reid’s character assassinations from the well of the Senate had nothing to do with Trump’s political emergence or their own exile into the political wilderness.
It’s an amazing example of projection. For those who have children, the entire article can be summed up thusly: “Mom, he hit me back!”
Meanwhile, a Yale law professor who identifies with the Stephen Breyer/Elana Kagan wing of the Supreme Court offers advice to Schumer et al in today’s Wall Street Journal. If Gorsuch really does need 60 votes, you’d better find a way to make sure he gets them:
Moderates could do a lot worse than Judge Neil Gorsuch—and we probably will if he isn’t confirmed. Donald Trump is clearly determined to nominate a judicial conservative to the Supreme Court. Elections have consequences, as Barack Obama once chided congressional Republicans. …
But among judicial conservatives, Judge Gorsuch is as good as it possibly gets. I have known him personally for more than a decade, since he was an attorney in the Justice Department. He is a brilliant mind, but more important he is a kind, sensitive and caring human being. Judge Gorsuch tries very hard to get the law right. He is not an ideologue, not the kind to always rule in favor of businesses or against the government. Instead, he follows the law as best as he can wherever it might lead. …
The sensible route for moderate Democrats is clear: They should cross the aisle and join Republicans to cut off a filibuster, allowing an up-or-down vote by a simple majority on Judge Gorsuch. That will prevent Republicans from invoking the “nuclear option” to change the Senate rules and abolish the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. One way or another, Judge Gorsuch is going to be confirmed. The question is how much damage will be done to the country first.
Actually, the question is how much damage has already been done to the country by Senate Democrats, and whether they will ever own up to it. If McConnell changes the rules to allow for a simple majority to proceed to confirmation, he will only be following the precedent that Schumer, Reid, and every single Democrat in the Senate set first.
It is time.
” One way or another, Judge Gorsuch is going to be confirmed. The question is how much damage will be done to the country first.”
Finally, a left-wing pragmatist.
Sounds like Schumer is making s threat.
Schumer....now don’t tear up....but Gorsuch is going to be confirmed....and you know it.
Per the liberals:
Judge Gorsuch is in favor of dirty air, dirty water, and opposes food safety. He opposes aid to autistic children. Clearly this man is a monster. Forget the fact that these same Democrats approved him to be a federal judge years ago. Doesn’t matter in liberal land.
Now things have changed. Judge Gorsuch is a threat to our very survival as a nation!!!
sarcasm
Just an observation, but if this 60-game is permanent...and Trump is around for eight years....then I don’t see anyone being approved. But as each Judge passes on...the same problem will remain, and we could be arriving at 2024 with only four judges on the Supreme Court. Maybe this is the answer....just let them all die off/pass on, and have no Supreme Court. Eventually, we’d do the same with the appeals courts and the regional courts, and just avoid this whole mess.
The conclusion of the piece is probably right, they can well insist on 60 votes as a starting place, but then they should go ahead and give him the 60 votes.
They do not have a lot of cards to play, and wasting them on this nomination is nuts.
Just like a rooster walking around the yard crowing..
I don’t believe McConnell wants to run the nuclear option, even though Tim Kaine promised democrats would. But I can see McConnell requiring an actual filibuster to occur, rather that relying on the pocket filibuster of cloture. Let some singular democrat bleat on endlessly until she tires, then close debate and have a vote.
Make then actually filibuster and when they physically falter, call for the vote.
Well, that’s the thing. The 60 thing ISN’T permanent. McConnell will suspend the filibuster rules for this nomination and then it’s over, assuming no Republicans also bolt for the exits, and I don’t think they will.
But then after that if Trump really does nominate someone with marginal qualifications or some sort of other defect, then the Dems can’t even make a news story out of it. Gorsuch is absolutely blue-chip, and they know it, so why filibuster him other than anger that McConnell used the “Biden Rule” against Merrick Garland.
“Actually, the question is how much damage has already been done to the country by Senate Democrats, and whether they will ever own up to it. If McConnell changes the rules to allow for a simple majority to proceed to confirmation, he will only be following the precedent that Schumer, Reid, and every single Democrat in the Senate set first.”
And if they shoe were on the other foot, Schumer & Co. would have already installed their Commie. I’ve said it before recently, but Schumer is “like a flea floating down river on his back with an erection yelling raise the bridge, I’m coming through!”
FAKE!
Only a simple majority is required. 60 minutes are not constitutional only a internal Senate Rules subject to the approval or Repblicate Majority.
The appointment and confirmation of Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States involves several steps set forth by the United States Constitution, which have been further refined and developed by decades of tradition. Candidates are nominated by the President of the United States and must face a series of hearings in which both the nominee and other witnesses make statements and answer questions before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which can vote to send the nomination to the full United States Senate. Confirmation by the Senate allows the President to formally appoint the candidate to the court.
No number required.
And .. McConnell better realize that if he blows this .. HE WILLL NOT WIN HIS NEXT ELECTION.
PLEASE SOMEBODY REMIND HIM - and for all those who said WE NEED McConnell TO GET RE-ELECTED .. I’m already asking WHY?
If he doesn’t get this nomination confirmed .. he’s out of a job.
This BS is all designed to rile up the D base for mid-terms.
I predict that the RATs will give Gorsuch 60 votes and save the real battle for the next nominee in order to maintain a pretense of 60 votes necessary for a supreme court justice.
The Republicans will have to nuke them from space, just to be sure.
amazing how the filibuster, which used to be rare and newsworthy (not to mention demanding on the speaker), has morphed into anything “controversial” needs to have 60 votes.
Idiotic.
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