I got nothing tonight so here’s Ron.
Very disappointing. Shameful, actually. Total gridlock. Unrelenting spite. Childish payback for Merrick, whom Republicans refused to even schedule hearings on because his name was placed in nomination by a lame-duck president in an election year.
In fact, here’s what Joe Biden said about that very thing when it was discussed in the late stages of the Bush I administration: “It is my view that if the president goes the way of Presidents Fillmore and Johnson and presses an election year nomination, the Senate Judiciary Committee should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until after the political campaign season is over,” when he was Senate Judiciary Chairman in 1992.
I’m not a Constitutional scholar, but I don’t believe the 60-vote threshold is chiseled in granite for Senate confirmation of PotUS nominees. It’s more of a tradition than a hard-and-fast rule. In fact, Judge Thomas was confirmed with a 52-48 vote:
The whole idea of filibuster and 60-vote cloture to end it is no more than a common-sense tool to get people to be reasonable and stop looking for the perfect candidate who will satisfy their political base. NOBODY will be entirely acceptable to some senators, but Gorsuch comes very damned close, having been confirmed to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals UNANIMOUSLY.
Basically a filibuster is a delay tactic which allows the party in minority to brow-beat the majority. It’s essentially a wearing-down tactic to get the opposition to throw in the towel so that the body can move on to other important business, hoping that the next nominee will be more palatable. In essence, it can be used as extortion by the minority to dictate to the majority. At its core it’s anti-democratic (small d).
But the bottom-line point here is that DJT was elected primarily because voters were fed up with the constant gridlock and wanted someone who could get things done withOUT having to compromise everything into some kind of what-IS-this-shit! stew that NObody wants.
Gorsuch is simply a Scalia-like replacement for Scalia. There was nothing wrong with Merrick, actually, except that he tended to be slightly left of center and very much NOT Scalia-like. The problem was that Gropey Joe had already gone on record as saying that lame duck PotUSes shouldn’t be making SCotUS nominations.
Schumer doesn’t want to hear that, apparently. Otherwise, why the spiteful tilting at windmills to stop Trump’s nominee? It’s nothing but childish grade-school payback for McConnell’s preventing Merrick’s nomination coming to a vote.
Childish. Spiteful. Obstructionist. Petty. Lame. Hateful. Vindictive. Petulant. Bitter. And absolutely no way to run a legislature; in fact, precisely what the voters hired Sheriff DJT to get rid of as part of his swamp-draining game plan.
This infantile tantrum he’s throwing smacks of Dirty Harry Reid, and I thought we were rid of that black hole of progress. I can only imagine how much better off this country would be today if Bush I had been re-elected in ’92 and been followed by Jack Kemp in ’96 and maybe Joe Lieberman in ’04 then Romney or Gingrich in ’12.
Wow! No Slick. No Shrill. No Pope Algore. No Bush II. No Obama. And just for kicks, no Harry Reid, no Barbara Boxer, no Nancy Pelosi, and no Dick Durbin. And while we’re at it, no McRino.
But, as my USMC uncle used to tell me, shit in one hand and wish in the other and see what you wind up with.
Time for some baked beans and garlic toast.
Filibuster: My understanding is they want 60 votes to stop debate. This is more tradition than anything else. Some years ago the lefties got impatient (imagine that…) and trashed it because it was inconvenient – you know, like unwanted pregnancies.
Schmuck’s goal is to be as big a pain in the ass as he can. He wants to preserve as many communist programs as he can. His propaganda buddies eat it up. He’s wielding his power effectively giving his constituents hope.
In the mean time: Delay. Delay. Delay. He’ll delay for 2 years – then 4 years if he has to. And then he’ll mock Trump and the Republicans for not getting anything done. It doesn’t hurt that Schmuck’s castrated most of the RINOs already.
Thank goodness so much of the Divider-in-Chief’s damage was through executive orders.
Throw Merrick in their faces. Bring his name up for consideration then let him go when he doesn’t get enough votes. Next order of business is voting on Gorsuch, who gets confirmed. Dems are then exposed to even more ridicule.
The hate from the left is mind blowing….they will seek to derail President Trump for the next 4 years at every turn…. and to hell with our once great country….truly sickening
The libtards are using Merrick as an excuse for voting no against Gorsuch. They really didn’t clamor that much at the time the repubs refused to give Merrick a hearing because the reasoning was that the next POTUS will get to make the pick. Considering the polls showed clinton was going to win 98% the libs weren’t that bothered.
Then the big surprise and now they are crying shame pn the repubs. The big problem I have is that scumbags like McShame and his girlfriend Lindsey may vote no killing the majority vote. Gorsuch is an excellent pick but my gut tells me he may not be very conservative and with age may likely be another kennedy.
With all this deep state NSA crap going on I don’t trust any SCOTUS decisions. Roberts twisted pretzel logic on obamacare makes me question concerns of government blackmail.