Remember, ole' US Senator Ted Kennedy restarted the politicization of SCOTUS - Granite Grok

Remember, ole’ US Senator Ted Kennedy restarted the politicization of SCOTUS

Ted Kennedy ChappaquiddickWhat we’re seeing today with the severe politicization of SCOTUS nominations (simply because Government has become so big and intrusive, the stakes for any nominee are YUGE!) does have a history, and one that Ted Kennedy (“The Swimmer”) way back gave a huge kickstart.  The history from a piece called “Ted Kennedy Killed the Judicial Filibuster” (emphasis mine):

This is Ted Kennedy’s fault:

Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is often the only protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy.

This wasn’t a legal critique, it was character assassination, and it was character assassination that worked. One of the most thoughtful and qualified judges ever nominated for the Supreme Court was defeated as part of a pure political power play, one justified through slanderous and scandalous rhetoric.

It was and we’re seeing the ramifications today – what the Dems are doing are just a power play continuation.  But “oh Skip!”, you say, what about Garland??

Short term memories.  Look at the history from Kennedy’s shive in the ribs forward and you can see that the Dems have been very good at it – the Republicans not so much.  With the news tonite that John McCain WILL support McConnell’s vote on the Reid Rule (formerly known as the Nuclear Option for the filibuster), it’s a done deal. Before that, McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Susan Collins were rumored to be against it which meant that it would fail and the Dems would be successful for that tit-for-tat Garland-Gorsuch play.

Now, it is a done deal – with VP Pence again throwing the deciding vote as President of the Senate, the Republicans can invoke the Reid Rule and pass Gorsuch on a simple majority.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

(H/T: The Corner)

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