Good job Sen. Schumer. Leverage it. Trump needs you. McConnell knows it too.
Still another indication that McConnell was privy to the collusion info in 2016 and/or that he’s going to do as much damage as possible before the 2018 mid-terms.
This is what you get for not recognizing the enemy and continuing to try to play fair while they undermine EVERYTHING in order to win. Go fuck yourself and your “niceness” and “bipartisanship” and “collegiality.” The country is in crisis because it is increasingly and LITERALLY being ruled by a smaller and smaller minority…and I"m not just talking about plutocracy that the rule of the “1%” oligarchy, etc. I’m talking about gerrymandering and the GOP shutting down all avenues of majority rule. The next time the Dems have the Congress they need to run roughshod all over the GOPers LIKE THEY DON’T FUCKING EXIST. Anything short of that means nothing changes and we remain on the trajectory resulting in open revolt.
This is crucial. This better not go how it looks like it’s going. Democrats have been completely outmaneuvered on judicial nominees since Bill Clinton.
“Ironically, more than a few of the judiciary vacancies Trump can now fill exist because Republicans under President Obama refused to return blue slips for his nominees — even for nominees they had previously supported.”
Someone explain to me what the fuck is “IRONIC” about that. It’s not ironic in any way. IT’S BY DESIGN, AND IT IS UNDERMINING OUR COUNTRY’S DEMOCRACY AND SHOULD BE REPORTED AS SUCH.
The republicans think they are getting something great by eliminating the blue slip rule but when democrats are back in power in the Senate, they will REGRET doing this. They will complain about democrats just shoving through their judicial nominees. It will come back around. #2018Vote
Exactly… and people wonder why they are called Deplorables.
Ya, maybe Grassley will growl his cranky growl in ‘honor of the institution’ (probably not, but maybe) - but then he will take another for the team and go along with Mitch.
Maybe it would be worthwhile to target some Senate traditionalists and pressure them to commit to a no vote on judges who don’t receive a positive blue slip? McCain seems willing to buck his party lately (the cancer gave him balls, it seems). Who else?
To be fair, the Senate is the least democratic of our federal institutions, so making an argument based on Democracy is completely ineffective. If you want to get anywhere you’ll need to make an appeal based on an erosion of power for individual Senators. It’s what get’s guys like John McCain out of bed in the morning…
McConnell is a ruthless cynic who doesn’t care in the least for upholding Senate rules unless they help him. McConnell rendered the filibuster rule on legislation meaningless by making his big agenda item to take away health care from tens of millions only subject to a majority vote. He abolished the Supreme Court filibuster so he could insert right wing radical Gorsuch. He is unconcerned about the blue slip tradition.
Democrats need to wake up and, to the extent possible, stop all Senate business from proceeding. They need to oppose all GOP bills. No more being nice guys.
This would be a good test to see if Senator Corker is all talk about opposing Trump or just a loudmouth rubberstamp for the radical Trump GOP agenda.
By stamping down on efforts before the 2016 election to prevent Russian espionage, McConnell revealed he’s either a traitor who was complicit in the meddling, or a partisan scumbag who elevates party above country.
About Judges… This (o/t) just dropped in the WaPo:
First tantalizing line in the story: Former Alabama judge Roy Moore, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, once said publicly that he did not take a “regular salary” from the small charity he founded to promote Christian values because he did not want to be a financial burden.
Again, the only surprise in this is that it didn’t happen as soon as the Senate convened for this term.
So Moore is not only a crazy theocrat but a crook. Can he be charged criminally soon?
This GOP could pull this stunt for other nominees say like asst AG Criminal Division nominee Brian Benczkowski. In this position this guy could clear trump and any others of wrongdoing as a reuslt of the mueller investigation…
Hope this (and other story’s like it - because when there is dipping into the til type stories - there are usually multiple examples of similar behavior) level of national scrutiny scares off some of the Bannon recruits who haven’t lived in the public spotlight like Moore has. Then again, maybe not. Bannon could just make a few seats that are currently not winnable/flippable, suddenly flippable.
An intentional plot to pack the court system with far-right diehards coming to successful frutation isn’t irony.