 |
| Jonathan Ernst/Reuters |
And their attempt to do so will hurt them this fall.
On the morning after U.S. Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, Democratic senators were ready with their top talking point. In appearance after appearance on the cable-news shows, they repeatedly demanded that Senate Republicans adhere to the same “rule” that had guided them in 2016 and wait until after the November elections before voting on a replacement for Kennedy.
But few had their hearts in the effort. Only a day earlier, Democrats, led by the editorial page of the New York Times, had been complaining bitterly about the way Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell had “stolen” a seat on the high court from President Obama by imposing just such a delay. The talk of “letting the people decide” was merely a long-winded way of reminding the country that confirming Trump’s pick would be an exercise in hypocrisy. They’re right about that, but as an opening salvo in a fight that liberals are claiming is nothing less than a judicial Armageddon, it fell spectacularly flat, and every Democrat seemed to know it.
But the problem for Democrats was not just that they were embarking on a fight they had no chance to win. Their real dilemma was that their efforts were being judged by an angry, radicalized Democratic base that is demanding they do anything, up to and including shutting down the Senate and the government, in order to deny Trump and McConnell a fifth conservative justice. With the prospect of a solid conservative court majority being put in place for the foreseeable future and the chance that, without Kennedy restraining it, the court will overturn Roe v. Wade, among other sacred liberal precedents, the liberal base wanted more than a lame talking point that not even Democrats were buying.Read the rest from Jonathan S. Tobin HERE,
If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.
No comments:
Post a Comment