Posted on 06/29/2018 1:17:57 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defended himself Thursday evening against claims that he is being hypocritical by pushing to confirm a new Supreme Court justice before the upcoming elections.
After Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, McConnell said on the Senate floor that legislators "will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy's successor this fall," which prompted an outcry from Democrats, who accused the majority leader of hypocrisy for not waiting until after the elections as he did when former President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland in 2016.
"Sen. McConnell set the new standard by giving the American people their say in the upcoming election before Court vacancies are filled," Democratic Minority Whip Dick Durbin said in a statement, according to CNN.
"With so much at stake for the people of our country, the U.S. Senate must be consistent and consider the President's nominee once the new Congress is seated in January."
"What I said in 2016 is that we shouldn't fill a Supreme Court vacancy in the middle of a presidential election year. The last time I looked, there's no presidential election this year," McConnell said on Fox News Thursday.
"And, in fact, three current members of the U.S. Supreme Court were completed in election years, non-presidential election years. And the president's nominee to the Kennedy vacancy will be confirmed in a non-presidential election election year," he added.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
The time has come to replace a Reagan appointee. Lets get on with it quickly. If liberals got their way then there would be no swing vote decisions. If they filled this position with one of there lawless political activist’s then every decision from the USSC would based on their feelings.
IIRC, the Flake has pulled back & said he will not block a Trump nominee.
Collins & Murkowski, not so sure.
Dems up in November in Red states - are they all ready to fall on their sword for Chuckie Schumer?
AMEN! If it is the only thing he does it is fine with me.
This country is heading left. With this SCOTUS pick and maybe 2 more, Trump can ensure sanity for the next 25-30 years.
Ruth Buzzie Ginsberg could now be a mummy stuffed with straw for all we know. Propped up in a sleeping position.
Same goes for Maverick John McCain.
“hard lines everywhere”
It worked to save the Obamination of the PPACA.
However, Schumer and his team botched on the amnesty bill this week. It was a total gift to them and they refused the RINO gift of the year.
Good for McConnell, hang in there.
I tried to post an article yesterday but it was from a non-approved site. Flake has stated publicly he will support the new SCOTUS nominee. He said his reluctance on circuit court judges was to give him leverage abasing tariffs. He didn’t say he would consider the nomination before making a decision, he said he would support whoever Trump nominated.
Ginny will either have to die at her post or die hated by all the left.
‘Rats are already talking about packing the court when it’s their turn.
I’m still not so sure.
I can’t get the “shut down theater” out of my mind when considering what a GOPe devotee might do at this point.
I suspect it’ll be a lot of huff and puff aimed at pacifying the right, but behind closed doors, everything the left wants, again.
Some thoughts about McConnell. As much as I would like to see him go, the judgeships are the only chance of survival that McConnell has and I think he knows it. In the Supreme Court battle, there is no one better that we have on our side to spearhead this.
My biggest concern is our stupid comments about 2020 with regard to a Supreme Court opening. We should not preclude this possibility and not respond to the bait from the Rats about no nominees in an election year. Unfortunately, McConnell has said something like “Last time I looked this wasn't a presidential year.” Even worse Grassley has stated that he would not consider a candidate in 2020. For now we should STFU about 2020 and not lock us in with a BS rule. If an opening became available in 2020 (and we had a majority of senators which is likely), McConnell might actually recant as his election would be on the line. He is a survivor and he would realize that that accepting the Biden rule would doom him.
“Mitch is running this now having just had his wife threatened. “
He’s a snake but Im sure that he got onboard once his wife’s life was on the line. Like HE said, “i wont forget this, and you’ll regret this” (or something like that)
“they refused the RINO gift of the year.”
After decades of subterfuge and incrementalism, they feel they have sufficiently manipulated the education system, the information media and the nation’s demographics. They feel their destiny is now assured. Time to drop the mask. It’s now or never.
The whole Trump thing has led to monumental cognitive dissonance, but ignoring reality is one of their superpowers. They’ll get over it.
” the Flake has pulled back & said he will not block a Trump nominee.”
link please
I still dont believe it because he’s a backstabbing Never Trumper. Saying and doing are different. He says one thing and make a drama the next. At least with McLame , we EXPECT BS from this clown.
The previous election was to determine who would get to choose the Supreme Court nominee. After this election Trump gets the pick no matter what. So no reason to wait. The dems want to use this issue to raise money.
I agree 100% with what you just wrote. In fact, I said back when the RATs were filibustering Gorsuch that it was a terrible miscalculation on their oart.
Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski would be a lot less likely to pull the trigger on the nuclear option to get rid of the filibuster for SCOTUS nominations if it was to permit the confirmation of a conservative to replace Kennedy and (hopefully) become the fifth vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. Democrats basically made it easy for the two pro-abortion Republican Senators to vote for the nuclear option when the filibuster was taking place not to protect Roe v. Wade, but to stop the confirnation of a qualified, likeable conservative to replace someone just as conservative and thus something that would not affect the balance of power. The nuclear-option vote is the difficult one, because once the filibuster is gone there is no way that a qualified conservative will lose the up-or-down vote given that too many Democrats in conservative states will end up voting for such nominee (whereas such Democrats could vote against the nuclear option much more freely because it was about “process” and “Senate tradition” and not about a qualified conservative judge).
The Democrats had one chance to filibuster, and they used it up too early and on the wrong nomination. The only explanation, apart from a combination of hubris and fear of primary challenges from the left, is that Democrats thought that the next confirmation battle (be it for Kennedy’s or Ginsburg’s seat) would come after the 2018 midterms and that Republicans would be likely to have more than the 52 Senators that they had in 2017. Instead, the confirmation fight will take place before the midterms, and the GOP only has 51 Senators (one of whom is terminally ill, has not been in DC for over a month and may not be available to vote), which would have made it a lot more feasible for the Democrats to (i) get their 49 members plus a couple of Republicans to vote against the nuclear option and then (ii) get 41 Democrat Senators to filibuster the nomination (Schumer could give permission to up to 8 Democrats to vote for cloture and still have an effective filibuster). But, because of what the Dems did last year, they can’t even try to filibuster President Trump’s nominee.
That was a terrible unforced error by Senate Democrats. I hope that their memories of the pats on the back that they got from Leftist activists during the Gorsuch confirmation hearings will serve as consolation for the pain that SCOTUS will send their way for years to come.
Well said. If the filibuster rule were still in place, it might be tough to get enough votes to do away with the filibuster now, in today’s political environment, and with very tight 50-49 split.
I’m assuming that the Republicans are down 1 for the indefinite future, since nobody seems to know what’s going on with John McCain.
Well said. If the filibuster rule were still in place, it might be tough to get enough votes to do away with the filibuster now, in today’s political environment, and with the very tight 50-49 split.
I’m assuming that the Republicans are down 1 for the indefinite future, since nobody seems to know what’s going on with John McCain.
“Sleepy Ditch only seems to awaken when its SCOTUS time. At this point, I’ll take it and rejoice.”
indeed. good enough ...
Az Central reported yesterday that Sen. Flake would not block SCOTUS nominee over Trump tariffs. But wanted a “Constitutionalist.”
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