Discussion: Mitch McConnell Exacts His Revenge Against Obama

Discussion for article #235374

“I think [the Republicans] are going to have regrets, for sure. Midterm
elections are always difficult, but presidential years are different.
And I think these issues become more salient in 2016,” said Caroline
Fredrickson, the president of the progressive American Constitution
Society. “It’s not just the lower courts — the Supreme Court becomes a
huge topic.”

In other words,what comes around goes around.

13 Likes

Another Onion like headline. Was McConnell allowing nominations to go through when he was in the minority? The whole idea of the nuclear option was that McConnell was impossible to deal with on nominations when he was the Minority Leader. Did anyone expect him to be nicer to Obama nominations with a majority and absolute power as a Majority leader?

Revenge? McConnell delayed nominations for over a year even when the nominee had zero or token opposition.

38 Likes

Ah, Republicans in Congress–all the subtle dynamics of a nursery school recess…

16 Likes

No surprise in any case; the Repukes have been stalling, slowing and trying to halt the President’s judicial nominees for years. On the other hand, it is hard to block too many federal court appointments. Obama has already gotten confirmed 250 federal district court judges and 52 Appeals judges… a lasting legacy. And when Hillary is done, Democrats should have large majorities of Democrat-appointed judges from the Supreme Court on down. We need them, as it doesn’t look like we will be taking back the Gerrymandered and GOP-rigged Congress for a long time. This as much as anything indicates that ‘elections do matter and have consequences’ and after the two mid-term nightmares, one only hopes the Democrats will turn out in record numbers to support their nominee. ~VOTE!!!~

And…turtles move slowly! It was bound to happen:

9 Likes

Without the nuclear option which Reid was slow and loathe to use, the Senate still set a record on forcing the
use of the filibuster to get a vote on every Obama nominee. McConnell’s abuse of the process was beyond
anything ever done by any previous Minority leader. This “revenge” is simply what he was doing before except now he has more power to get his own way because he is the majority leader. Had he had a majority from the beginning, the pace of confirming Obama nominees would be even worse.

21 Likes

As I write this there are 4 comments, each is a pattern on this comment, and many more like it will follow…

Thanks Mitch for the Belly Laugh, payback yea, was not the “Nuclear Option” not a response to slowdowns in the form of meaningless filibusters to begin with. I had thought the the definition of revenge was something that took place after an event, not before, during and after… ROFLOL Again and again and again the ineptitude of the REPUGS, it’s the only thing they have.

11 Likes

It’s time to elect adults instead of the children we now have in Congress.

7 Likes

Its time to elect some Democrats and replace all the Republicans.

McConnell’s threat was that he would burn the house down later if the Democrats didn’t let him burn it down now.

13 Likes

The amusing complaining ignores the reason they had to go for the “nuclear” option anyway. Before it they were trying to play by the senate rules but the GOP blocked or stalled everyone. Obama had the fewest nominees moving out of the senate of any president or at least recent ones. The GOP changed to say he was not nominating them fast enough, but it seems it was more of a response to nothing being done on the ones that had been.

So this is really nothing new at all. The only thing that is pretty unusual in particular is the GOP war on cabinet level positions. They filibustered one and now are stalling. All for ideological reasons more than anything else. It is pretty sad. But really this is just what the GOP was doing all along anyway. So it is not any sort of revenge.

The revenge would be if a GOP president gets in and pretty much short circuts everything by putting another uber conservative justice on SCOTUS. that would pretty much mark the end of anything for the people of the country. At least conservatives in their current form.

4 Likes

Why is it that the right-wing voters don’t understand that when these mean little boys they have elected strike out at the Pres or the government that they are doing that to all of us…them included??? Maybe if someone put that reality in eighth grade level comic book form and dropped them like leaflets into republican “red” districts they might get it. Probably not.

4 Likes

I’m not going to be embarrassed

Another GOP laundry list of petty revenge over alleged hurt feefees without mentioning duty, the public trust or even the public for that matter.

11 Likes

I, too, am of the general impression which seems to dominate this thread… “What’s New?”

And then I saw the author of the article…and knew a similar “Chicken Little” piece on the ACA would follow this one.

6 Likes

Retaliation my ass. They did the exact same thing during Clinton’s last two years and, as usual, to a lesser extent, Democrats did the same thing to Bush during his last two years. It’s the new normal that’s been developing ever since Republicans hyper-politicized the entire judicial confirmation process after Ted Kennedy blew up Reagan’s attempt to put a single totally beyond the pale nominee onto SCOTUS.

5 Likes

One day when we have a Dem President (Hillary, of course) and a Dem House and Senate, the repubs will be totally marginalized. If only we could have majorities like FDR had. I’m hoping and dreaming for that day to come.

3 Likes

Way to go, Mitch! After all, the only person in the entire country who benefits from having these nominees confirmed is the President. That will teach him!

3 Likes

The GOP can’t govern.

3 Likes

McConnell is just a spiteful fuck.
The nuke option was triggered BECAUSE of his obstruction.
So what’s different now except that a simple majority is now needed instead of 60 votes.

6 Likes

I wish some journalist would pick up on and write a good expose on McConnell’s real early discharge from the Army during one of the bloodiest years, in the Vietnam War!
Take your pick of posts about McConnell and his gay discharge! McConnell has refused to answer about his mysterious discharge from the army!
Bring it up and one of his backslappers/henchmen spoksemen will appear so fast to defend him or change the subject, you’d think you were witnessing a miracle happen before your eyes! If anyone needs to be exposed as the liar that he is, McConnell should be number 1 on any list! The time has come for his closet door to be ripped off it’s hinges and expose this sorry arse for the lying, conniving jack-off that he is!!

https://www.google.com/search?q=mcconnell+gay+discharge&rlz=1C1GGGE_enUS631US631&oq=mcconnell+gay+dis

3 Likes

McCain:

“I also told them when they did the nuclear option,” he said, “that I was not going to be in any hurry to confirm nominees that were not very important. And I’m not going to be embarrassed about saying that.”

Yes, Johnny McPlaneCrasher. Federal judges and the U.S. Attorney General are “not very important.”

Dickhead idiot.

5 Likes