McConnell ratchets up judicial wars — again

[Gestopft]

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/1...43669?lo=ap_d1

Senator McConnell is planning to ignore the Senate's practice of letting Senators sign off on home-state judicial nominees in order to load up the circuits with his preferred judges. So far the chair of the Judiciary Committee hasn't signaled that he's on board yet, so hopefully he holds back this blatantly partisan power grab by the most destructive Senator in Washington. The sooner McConnell retires or gets voted out, the better this country will be.

[some guy]

What is his game plan here? Try to cram through as many nominees before the pendulum swings back to the democrats? Because I don't see anyway that tactics like this don't come back to bite him and his ilk in the ass when they do lose senate control.

[Xeones]

What is his game plan here? Try to cram through as many nominees before the pendulum swings back to the democrats? Because I don't see anyway that tactics like this don't come back to bite him and his ilk in the ass when they do lose senate control.

It's like he totally missed how the democratic change in rules to get appointments through was used by him to steal a Supreme Court seat.

Once he does this why would democrats just willingly bring the rule back? They'll have to do what they can to get justice back into the nation.

[Masark]

Because I don't see anyway that tactics like this don't come back to bite him and his ilk in the ass when they do lose senate control.

At present, there are openings for roughly 1/10th of the federal judiciary, due to the obstruction during Obama's last term. And those are lifetime appointments, so if they stuff relatively young ideologues into those positions, those are going to have lasting effects for decades, regardless of whether the House and Senate go blue.

[Mormolyce]

You really need serious judicial reform, lifetime appointments down partisan lines are a recipe for disaster.

Trouble is you'd probably need a Constitutional Amendment to get that done. And the US has been unwilling to go down that road for decades.

[Milchshake]

What is his game plan here? Try to cram through as many nominees before the pendulum swings back to the democrats? Because I don't see anyway that tactics like this don't come back to bite him and his ilk in the ass when they do lose senate control.

The problem really goes back 2008 and maybe even 2006. 2006 showed that the US finally shifted from a center-right electorate towards to very slightly left one. 2008 really cemented this in terms of future demographics.
This scared the GOP shitless. It really galvanized their elites and donor class in way most Americans haven't realized. That fear drove them to embrace very undemocratic ideas as a way to hold onto power and stall out leftward shift of the US. Using and abusing arcane rules like the "blue slip rule".

Stalling judicial appointments since 2008. That's 8 years that were diminished. And would have possibly done more to balance the previous 8 years of Bush's very partisan appointments. So Trump's 4 years will have an exaggerated impact.
McConnell isn't worried about the pendulum swinging back, because whenever it does... the damage will have already been done and it will be lasting.

Also conservative lawfare groups like ALEC are working hand-in-hand with Federalist Society to prepare lawsuits that are targeted to sympathetic judges in the circuit courts. These lawsuits will chip away at existing democratic norms and rules. Like those that struck down key parts of the Voting Rights Act. Which can help the GOP hold onto power even longer as a minority party.


I sadly remember talking with Jill Stein and Bernie or Bust voters over the high stakes of judicial appointments. They accused democrats of using this as emotional blackmail for their votes.... sigh.