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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Has Died at 87
Vetting a nominee typically takes longer than 50 days. Not likely to happen when some Senators who want to be re-elected actually have to campaign in their home states prior to November 3rd.
POTUS can nominate someone, Mitch can try and push the nominee through but I don’t think he has the votes and won’t likely have the votes until and if Trump is re-elected and probably by a substantial Electoral College margin.
If you aren’t energetic on your behalf, you become the hapless Mitt Romney crushed by the “mighty” Candy Crowley. Because the true believer always wants to hitch their wagon to the guy that never takes the shot, never presses a case, never does anything to upset those nice people burning down our cities!
True. Republican senators would have to actually care. We are doomed! Doomed I tell you!
It depends on how Trump frames the issue. By announcing his nominee early next week but not pressing for the Senate vote until after the election he puts the onus on Biden to announce his own nominee. Whether Biden and his team can announce a viable candidate and someone who appeals to all the contentious and entrenched factions of the Democrat Party in the next few weeks could be quite challenging for them.
The Trump Campaign can hit the ground running with an ad campaign for Trump’s nominee as just one more reason to re-elect the President.
Well, there are at least 3 who care more about themselves than the welfare of the nation…of course, that’s a highly charged accusation…less so for Murkowski. She is a piece of work.
Actually that sounds like the ideal strategerie, under the circumstances.
The only down side I can think of offhand is that any nominee Biden (Harris) makes would be totally protected by the media from any real scrutiny.
This may come down to ‘Enthusiasm Gap’ vs. ‘Wellstone Effect’ in that Biden’s tepid campaign now has an issue that abortion rights people can get excited about, even if they don’t care for the candidate. On the other hand, the funeal for Ginsberg and the immediate aftermath is going to be particularly ugly in terms of how the left acts, based on how they’ve politicized every major funeral for a political figure over the past 20 years. Does that in turn energize people on the anti-abortion side who may have been apathetic about Trump? And how would McConnell ramming a nomination through before Dec. 31 play with the swing voters (he’ll likely have to do with without both Collins and Murkowski, but on the other hand, Graham also needs to energize support in his re-election bid, to where being gung-ho for a fast confirmation process could be an asset).
The other thing this will force Biden to do is show his hand on his Supreme Court possibilities, something Biden balked at doing a few days ago when Trump offered up his list of second-term judicial options. (while the other other thing that will do is force the supposed anti-abortion #NeverTrump people to pick a side. If Biden offers up a list of possible nominees who’d extend Roe, do the Mona Charen/David French types declare that Trump is so horrid Biden could put the ghost of Margaret Sanger on the court, and they’d be OK, or do they have to backtrack?)
It’s the infighting over Biden’s pick that’s the issue. If it’s not a black woman, watch out.
It depends on how you see it. It’s an opportunity for Washington to be unlike Washington usually is, and be consistent in a principle insisted upon during the last election. Yeah, yeah, I know the splitting hairs we’re doing of the Biden Rule.
But, honestly, a change in tone the Beltway, a modest feign toward statesmanship? That’s an election tactic too. I don’t know that it’s the smartest thing or best thing, but it’s sure not the usual Washington crud.
I have a whole bunch of like for Brian’s comment.
It seems to me, the NeverTrumpers can’t care much about abortion anyway, or they wouldn’t be willing to vote for Biden at all.
The Biden Rule, as established by Biden himself (not that I expect him to remember), is no Supreme Court nominations in an election year, IF the Senate is controlled by the opposition party from the President. That was an issue for Merrick Garland, but is not an issue now.
It would be especially great to let Biden pick first, maybe he goes with Merrick Garland because it was “his turn,” and then Trump nominates a black woman. How about Stacy Washington?
There is more media than just the opposition media. Pretending they have the monopoly delegitimizes the media that are friendly to the republic and feeds the vanity and self-importance of these yellow rags. It is a common problem, I certainly don’t mean to single you out on this, but we should be edifying media and acts of journalism in the face of the farcical collusions of corrupt paleo-media like the New York Times, the Washington Post, CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, NPR, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, et.al..
They will never carry the water for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they will always protect monsters like Kermit Gosnell and Trayvon Martin and Christopher Steele and repeat each others lies as truth. Call them on it. Every time. But don’t grant them unearned dignity as if what they are doing qualifies as journalism. It doesn’t. It hasn’t for a long time.
It is in poor form to denigrate someone of the day of their death. Can you wait until after her funeral?
As the smell of smoke engulfs our cities, I more concerned with showing staunch opposition than with politely passing the gasoline to the fellow in the black mask.
But for the ones who have preened and written column after column about their own personal anti-aobrtion views, the idea of Ginsberg being replaced by Trump or Biden was a hypothetical they could ignore in their #NeverTrump justifications up until a few hours ago. Now it’s real, and they’ll have to pick a side
To my Jewish friends, is there a significance that RBG died on Rosh Hashanan?
A nice idea, but a lot of people in this country only pay attention to the liars, and that’s not likely to change any time soon.
I still think they already picked their side. Especially the ones that call for voting for Democrats all the way down the ticket. How theoretical can that really be?
You all are overthinking the strategy. Judge RBG was confirmed in such a short period of time. We are in a battle for the soul of the country. Only losers chose an option out of fear.
Dems couldn’t hate us any more than they already do.
RGB and Dems gamed the system, hoping to win in 2020 and have a Dem replace her. They lost the game and caused the process to happen during the heat of an election season. If Dems held the White House and Senate, they would have their pick sitting on the court ASAP. They politicized the court and court picks. Now let them regret it.
There is nothing to be gained by waiting. Who are you trying to please? The Democrats who executed a coup and who trashed Kavanaugh? They have shown their cheating hand and intend to contest the election. Can’t risk 4-4 court. They aren’t going to accept a loss peacefully on this or the election anyway.
I predict that if an appointment is filled by Trump and confirmed by the Senate, the Dems will take the Senate majority, will break the legislative filibuster, and will expand the Supreme Court to 11 justices. Losing the legislative filibuster will lead to much greater mischief, starting with the admission of DC and Puerto Rico as states. This whole came up before in 1968, and Republicans blocked a nomination given the coming election.
We shall see what happens next.
Then I predict this. Cheers.
This is not correct. The Senate is 53-45-2, with the two independents being effectively Democrats.
I don’t doubt they’ve chosen sides. But they can’t brush off the idea that Biden’s going to appoint anti-abortion judges to the Supreme Court as some future hypothetical now, because of RBG’s death. So they’ll basically have to show their cards, and explain why four more years of Trump is more horrible than allowing Roe v. Wade to roll on into its second half-century. The logic should be tortured enough to generate Geneva Convention violations.
If the presidential election were not imminent, this would be big, very big. With the election about six weeks away, this is astronomically big. I stopped back to Ricochet just to see reactions. I can see this helping or hurting Trump. I hope to God it helps, but I was wondering what Ricochetti thought.
I should add, may she rest in peace. I didn’t like her worldview, but that is no reason to wish her eternal ill will.
By the way, there was some discussion to pick a replacement immediately. I can’t see how the Senate could confirm anyone in six weeks. It won’t happen. Perhaps Trump can announce his pick, if he think it tactically wise. Either way, the left will get motivated because of this, whether Trump picks someone or not.
As to the NeverTrumpers, they will never not be NeverTrumpers. (How’s that for negatives and alliteration?) This makes no difference to them. Actually the Trump policies have brought so many new faces to the conservative side that it far outweighs the NeverTrumper defections. In fact, the more the NeverTrumpers talk and hate Trump, the more new voices and votes it brings to the right. NeverTrumpers are a blessing to the Trump vote!
They’ll do that anyway. This reminds me of the 80s, when the Ds always admonished the Rs for being “confrontational” towards the USSR whenever Reagan advanced American interests. As if the Russians would, with weary regret, respond by being more extreme than they otherwise might have been.
The only thing I wonder about is whether the Ds in the Senate will curse “the bastards!” when they know they would absolutely push through a SCOTUS nom in the same situation. Oh but that’s different, because For Great Justice.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a brilliant justice in many ways. If you look past her decisions on political hot topics, she was very solid on legal theory and rule of law. In law school I learned to appreciate how well her opinions were written, even when I disagreed with her. There was a reason that Scalia made a big deal about his friendship with her, and it’s because they were both very, very intelligent, even when both were often so wrong.
That being said, I think this is an opportunity after a half century to finally push back so much of the excesses of the Court in so many areas even beyond the hot topic of abortion. With O’Connor, Souter, and Kennedy, the republicans squandered so much opportunity to set the country right again. We have been very patient, and law abiding, even in the face of shrinking individual rights and the massacre of the unborn. This is no time to be squeamish. Trump MUST nominate a good replacement for Ginsburg to counter the perfidy of John Roberts.
Collins will come through, just like she did for Gorsuch, but we may have to wait until after the election. At that point, win or lose, I think she will vote to confirm and that will be all she wrote. We won’t need that nepotistic Murkowski, or the feeble and pouting Mittens. I don’t care if nepotistic is a word. I like it.