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Justice Neil Gorsuch
The Senate confirmed Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court on Friday. The vote was 54-45, in which three Democrats joined the Republicans. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) did not vote as he is recovering from back surgery.
Gorsuch will fill the seat left vacant after the death of Antonin Scalia. “He’s going to make an incredible addition to the court,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “He’s going to make the American people proud.”
After Democrats attempted a filibuster to block the nominee, Republicans changed Senate rules to require only a simple majority to break a filibuster. Before the confirmation vote, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) said both Gorsuch and McConnell “will enter the history books with asterisks by their names.”
Gorsuch is expected to be sworn in on Monday morning.
Published in Law
EstabliCon favorite John McCain: It’s a bad day for democracy….will clearly lead to more extreme appointments on both sides.”
That’s better than the liberal justices’ practice of putting an asterisk after every clause of the Constitution.
Nevertheless He Persisted
Amen, brother. This and raising a middle finger to the press. (What do you expect, I’m deplorable.)
And how would it be different if some other outcome had happened? If we lose the Senate in 18 Chuckles is going to announce a new “lame duck rule” effective January 2019.
I think that’s right, but I still want to send him a thank you note.
Maybe this is what Dickie has in mind?
“* The confirmation of Justice Gorsuch marked the beginning of a new practice of Republicans schooling Democrats and demonstrated that they had finally figured out how to play the game.”
Three Republicans joining a Democratic majority: Bipartisan compromise in the best traditions of the Senate.
Three Democrats joining a Republican majority: Extreme right-wing assault on democracy and representative government.
Gee, I wonder which liberal justice you’re wishing would have had the opportunity to meet her maker?
I’m only saying that it should always have been the policy of the GOP to give SC nominees up or down votes, not that the filibuster should have been maintained.
Dang, I wish I had said that.
If we had party discipline I might agree with you, but we don’t and the stakes are too high. Leadership gave their (non)consent by withholding the nominee from a vote. It is what the majority gets to do.
I have been highly critical of McConnell in the past. Highly. I will praise him for this. Highly.
No, we should save Harry Reid’s name for Yucca Mountain.
@latapada , I believe those three represent states carried by Trump in the general election. They were acting in accordance with their constituents and thinking ahead to re-election. But then, Manchin is a very conservative Democrat. I keep expecting him to become a Republican.
There is much significance and it’s all about next year:
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D. Won by 2,900 votes. – – Trump Won 64%
–
Joe Minchin, D-W.Va. won with 60% of the vote. – – Trump Won 68%
–
Sen. Joe Donnelly D-In. won by 150,000 out of 2.5 million cast. – – Trump Won 67%
Expect a lot of the choices and decisions by both parties over the next 18 months to be made with the 2018 Mid-terms in mind.
To fill out the chart I posted above. Here are all the Senate seats we have a chance of taking. I make no predictions, however. These are merely Democrat Senators who didn’t win by huge margins (riding Obama’s coattails in 2012) in states that President Trump won in 2016.
State – Senator – percent of vote – Trump and Clinton percent of vote
Florida – Bill Nelson 55% – Trump 49.1% Clinton 47.8%
Indiana – Joe Donnelly 50% – Trump 57.2% Clinton 37.9%
Missouri – Claire McCaskill 55% – Trump 57.1% Clinton 38.0%
Montana – Jon Tester 49% – Trump 56.5% Clinton 36.0%
N. Dakota – Heidi Heitkamp 50% – Trump 64.1% Clinton 27.8%
Ohio – Sherrod Brown 51% – Trump 52.1% Clinton 43.5%
Pennsylvania – Bob Casey 54% – Trump 48.8% Clinton 47.6%
W. Virginia – Joe Manchin 61% – Trump 68.7% Clinton 26.5%
Wisconsin – Tammy Baldwin 51% – Trump 47.9% Clinton 46.9%
To me, the Manchin vote for Gorsuch is the indicator of how worried the Democrats are feeling about the Mid-terms.
Minor quibble: I don’t think there are any conservatives who like McCain. Certainly none at ricochet. The term “establicon” is pretty meaningless.
I prefer “Democrat John McCain”
Agreed. And that is where the Buckley doctrine really does apply. I don’t think any conservatives really like McCain. He was run in 2008, when, quite frankly, it was very unlikely that any Republican candidate could have won. I think he is tolerated simply because it is understood that if he didn’t run, a democrat would hold his seat. At that point, I’d rather have McCain, who will vote conservative some of the time, than another democrat, who is almost assured to vote party line almost 100% of the time.
Agreed, but my worry is that he’ll be our next Arlen Specter. At age 80, and I’m not bashing octogenarians in general, he has become unpredictable. He seems to fly off the handle at the slightest provocation. However, unless he steps down, we’re stuck with him until 2020.
McConnell did a good job holding the Republicans together. I worried all along that Murkowski, Collins, McCain, Graham or even Hatch might not go along with changing the filibuster rules.
Collins is a Republican like I’m the Queen of Sheba.
My dad and I had this discussion once and looked her up. There are some vote-counting sites out there where you can get the information. I recall that she is quite dependable voting for the Right… except two issues: abortion and anything dealing with women’s rights, and the environment. She owns the women in Maine, so the first one makes sense, as she must keep her base to stay electable. On the second one, well, again, it’s Maine, easily one of most gorgeous states in the USA, nature-wise, and they don’t want the Federal Government going in there and messing it up, so again, it’s her base. She almost always votes for a Republican nominee for just about anything, Cabinet, courts, etc. She is very pro-second Amendment. But because of the first two issues being so important to her re-electability, I seem to remember she has about a 50-50 Democrat vs. Republican voting record.
My feelings are quite mixed with her. They really love her in Maine, but if she went any further to the right, they’d replace her with a Democrat without a second thought, and I feel like we’d never get that state back in our column. When Olympia Snowe retired, Maine immediately replaced her with a Democrat, although he claims to be “Independent” despite voting Democrat every single time he votes.
I just try to keep in mind that the Majority Leader gets to be of the Party with the most ‘R’ or ‘D’ by their names. It doesn’t matter if the ‘R’ stands for ‘RINO’ or not, and I’d rather have 1 ‘R’ in Maine than zero. :-)
Good points! I agree. I just get annoyed with some of her soundbites and wish she wouldn’t voice them in front of cameras.
The Democrats here in GA, even some of the minority ones, tend to be more conservative than the ones from the North East. I imagine there is someone in CA going “Come on!”
Yeah, I talk too much and used up my words, or I would have added, “I think the thing that makes me so unhappy is that there are many times when she sounds exactly like a Democrat, and that definitely gets my dander up.”
My Love-Hate McCain Pendulum just swung the other way. Again.
Chowderhead.