Politics - News Analysis

Quiet Part Out Loud: Mitch McConnell Gloats That Justice Barrett Will Be a ‘Political Asset’ to Republicans

Anthony Kennedy was approved by the Senate 97-0. David Souter was 90-9 (he was more of an unknown from a small state). Ruth Bader Ginsburg was 96-3, Stephen Breyer 87-9, and C.J. Roberts was 78-22. And that was the end of that when it came to the Senate simply discerning whether someone was qualified. It wasn’t a purely political thing until Samuel Alito, who was crazy conservative and has proven it, often to the right of Thomas, that things got real close.

Ironically, Obama’s two appointments were not radicals at all – and have proven it, they were easily confirmed. But each Trump appointee has been a radical and each one was stolen in some way. Gorsuch was the stolen seat from Garland and appointed along party lines, Kavanaugh might have been worse because something extremely fishy was up with Kennedy’s relationship with his son at Deustche and Kennedy’s sudden retirement after hiring law clerks. And then the ultimate, McConnell going forward – despite his Garland reasonining, to put a radically conservative candidate on the court.

Tonight, he no longer feels the need to hide it, indeed he’s made several comments lately about elections almost no longer mattering, they can count upon the court to strike down legislation like the ACA. Tonight he said:

So, despite Roberts admonition to Trump that there are no Republican judges or Democratic judges, now there actually are. This justice will assist Republicans for a long time to come.

In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, FDR continually tried to pass legislation meant to stimulate the economy. Each one was struck down by a court that had a very narrow reading of the commerce clause. The constant thrwarting of the will of the people is what led to the threat to stack the court and led to the “switch in time that saved nine” in West Coast Hotel, a case where one of the justices suddenly switched over to approve an interstate commerce case and FDR’s agenda then went through.

We have the same situation today. The ACA is every bit as constitutional as Medicare and everyone knows it. When it passed, no one said it was unconstitutional. It was only when Republicans were running ideas about what to do about it that they turned to the courts. We are now seeing what we saw in the 1930s, a court that wants to limit federal power to pass health care, protect the environment, regulate commerce, they will strike down all these laws – that’s what McConnell was bragging about when he said:

A lot of what we’ve undone over the last four years, a lot of what we will have done over the last four years will be undone sooner or later by the next election, they won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come. 

And that, my dear readers, is what this is all about. It is about “filling a court” that will block what Democrats want to do. THAT is why McConnell believed it was entirely acceptable and proper to appoint Barret. It was another opportunity to block Democrats.

That is also why Democrats will be completely within their rights to add at least two seats to the court. One for the stolen Garland seat, one for the stolen RBG seat, and then there needs to be a real investigation into what happened with Kavanaugh because something was very wrong. People don’t suddenly get $200,000 of credit card debt paid off. (Most judges don’t carry around $200,000 of credit card debt! I would have thought THAT alone was disqualifying for even an appellate court judge!).

But McConnell is bragging, because he got away with it. He doesn’t even need Trump anymore.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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