SHOT: McConnell refuses to say whether ‘nuclear option’ in Supreme Court nomination is on table
CHASER: Senate Democrats Vow to Filibuster Trump’s Supreme Court Choice
HANGOVER: President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he wants Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to invoke the nuclear option if Democrats try to block his upcoming Supreme Court nominee through filibuster.
These really are putting McConnell on the REALLY HOT seat. Trump has announced that his choice will be revealed tomorrow at 8pm. The Democrats have now announced (first time that I can remember) that without knowing who it is, they are going to try to stop it. So what is McConnell going to do?
Trump is going to pull the trigger, the Dems are going to start shoving that wall towards the Senate Republicans – what is he going to do in the middle?
Republicans generally fold under pressure as a group because their leadership folds faster than a cheap cardboard box in a N’oreaster. They can’t help themselves – they flock.
This will be Trump’s SECOND week and I have to tell you, for all the talk about him not being a Republican or a Conservative during the campaign, I.AM. GOBSMACKED with the stuff that he is rolling out. As a Conservative, with the exception of the botched rollout of the failed-Muslim state immigration pause (shoulda allowed for in-transit folks to be “grandfathered”under the wire AND not slowed down Green card holders), he’s been pretty much pitch perfect (ok, maybe a coupla warbles here and there) on the policy stuff. Everything that I’ve been hoping to see for YEARS is happening and he’s doing it on his own AND WITHIN THE CONTEXT of standing COnstitutional powers and within legislated statutes (as opposed to Obama, dontchaknow). Promises on the campaign are being kept. No, not on Day 1 as promised but the promises are being kept.
And here comes the biggest one – this is Trump’s signature event in filling the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat. From my perspective, I hope it really is a true Constitutional originalist (but I always do). Trump wants to Make America Great Again – there is NO better way than to restore The Rule of Law (to be Great again) and that starts with our Foundational Law – the Constitution. Its plain words with its original meanings and philosophy and not as a “living document” which makes it meaningless (as we have seen the Liberal wing of the Court do to it) are what made this country the greatest one on earth. It is my feeling that moving far away from it and biting away it’s checks and balances by Progressives have put us in the pickle we’re in in our slide into Socialism.
So what WILL McConnell do? Is he going to get a bee up his butt and finally stand up and make it happen? After all, Dingy Harry made it quite clear before retiring that he was setting up the Senate Dems to nuke the filibuster if Hillary had won, right? They were bound and determined that WHOMEVER Hillary wanted, she was going to get who she wanted. At any cost even in changing the “hallowed” rules of the Senate.
And that’s the problem I have with McConnell and he scares me in that it sounds like he values the Senate Rules over how the Constitutional will be used for the next 10, 20, 30 years? I really don’t know what he’s going to do – will he relax to the Senate cloakroom or is he going to rile himself up to reach half of Trump’s intensity and proclaim “we’ll get it done by whatever it takes”. Like him or not, Trump got and is getting it done.
The Dems are already rewiring the language definition and framing this choice that it MUST be a “mainstream” choice (like I’d really believe that someone that Chuck Schumer claims to be such would line up with mine?). The activists are already shaping the battlefield. This could be a horrible PR disaster if the Dems can punch the Rs in the nose
So all of the Senate Republicans are nervous – and when Republicans get nervous, they bail. So what is McConnell going to do? Is he going to shiver in place or grab that cutlass, put on the tri-corner, and plow the Dems under by hitting his political “nuke codes” and get’er done with the (Republican) Army he’s got and throw the Dems off the plank?
