Now the fight begins. This will place a half dozen GOP senators in the spotlight. Romney will be unlikely to countenance McConnell ramming through an appointment. What will Collins do?
Ultimately, I'd bet on Mitch winning, and we'll just have to live with it.
But you can bet that the first two years of a Biden administration will see the Democrats ram though anything and everything they can agree upon (agreement, that will be the problem) with no regard for GOP sentiment and fusty comments about comity and the need for consensus. Filibuster? Gone. Fifty Democratic senators and they'll be able to do anything they please.
Posts: 12759 | Location: Williamsburg, VA | Registered: 19 July 2005
Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed."
-------------------------------- When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
Posts: 38223 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010
F it. McConnel has already released a letter tying himself into a pretzel to explain why this is different from last time and affirming that he will confirm I-1's nominee (who we know will be someone I-1 never heard of but was put forward by the federalist society).
“This is the last year of a lame-duck, and if Ted Cruz or Donald Trump get to be president, they’ve all asked us not to confirm or take up a selection by president Obama. So if a vacancy occurs in their last year, of their first term, guess what, you will use their words against them. You will use their words against them. I want you to use my words against me. If there is a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said ‘let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination,’ and you could use my words against me and you'd be absolutely right.” — Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-SC) 10 March, 2016
“I'll tell you this, if an opening comes in President Trump's term, and the primary process has started, we will wait until the next election.” — Lindsey Graham (R-SC), 3 October, 2018 .
“We have a unique opportunity for the American people to have a voice in the direction of the Supreme Court. Our side believes very strongly that the people deserve to be heard, and they should be allowed to decide, through their vote for the next president, the type of person who should be on the Supreme Court.” — Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), 7 April, 2016.
“The president [Obama] exercised his unquestioned authority under the constitution, to nominate someone to this vacancy. But that same constitution reserves to the United States senate, and the United States senate alone, the right to either grant or withhold consent to that nominee.” — Sen. John Cornyn, (R-Texas). 16 March, 2016.
“Justice Scalia was an American hero. We owe it to him, & the Nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next President names his replacement.” — Ted Cruz (R-Texas) 13 February, 2016.
“It has been 80 years since the Senate has confirmed any judicial vacancy for the Supreme Court that occurred during a presidential election and the Republican majority in the Senate last year announced before Merrick Garland was nominated, before anyone was nominated, that we were going to keep this seat open and let the American people decide.” — Ted Cruz, (R-Texas) 31 January, 2016.
-------------------------------- When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
Posts: 38223 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010
