yea…because people dont want a leader who they believe is strong and working for them…thats why tRump voters respect him…cause he is so docile…geez…no wonder the country is where it is at
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Yeah, I am sure he is working on deal to fast track Trump’s judges at the request of McConell, you know so they can all go home early for the next break.
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How about he stops dealing with McConnell on fast tracking Trump’s judges for one.
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I agree - it is not at all clear that Schumer is capable of the aggressive Machiavellian tactics needed… knifing with a smile does not seem his thing…
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So what Trump voters like is the star to guide us now? Good to know.
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You have a point: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a23734322/chuck-schumer-15-judges-deal-mitch-mcconnell/
Missed this. He should step aside.
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So, any thoughts on who would be a good replacement? Wouldn’t have much power, but we need someone to give McConnell a hot foot every chance they get.
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If that were Schumer, it’d be one thing. It isn’t. Exhibit A: His deal on fast-tracking the judges before the last election, which, of course, McConnell promptly broke. Schumer apparently likes keeping the knife dry, just like his powder.
In exchange for an adjournment until after the election, so his members up for re-election could go home and campaign, Schumer agreed to fast-track 15 more Trump appointees to the federal courts, further guaranteeing that the cancer of this administration* will metastasize over decades until a lot of us are dead, and until a lot of us won’t be able to remember what the American government looked like before this president* was elected.
Schumer cut a similar deal last August, so everyone could go to the damn beach. Now, in the wake of a confirmation spectacle in which the nominee was by turns truculent and hopelessly dishonest, Schumer surrenders to the blackmail again?
No. Enough. For the love of god, go.
Among the new judges were Richard Sullivan (for the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals), David Porter (for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals), and Ryan Nelson for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. All three have the Federalist Society stamp of approval, and a look at their records reveals why. Nelson has a long history as a corporate lawyer and as a political appointee in the Justice Department under C-Plus Augustus, in which capacity he argued against clean air laws and against environmental suits brought against mining companies. He also is notable for defending Frank VanderSloot, a litigious Idaho mining plutocrat.
As for Porter, he’s been central to Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley’s neutering of the “blue slip” tradition by which a senator could object—and therefore kill—a federal judicial nominee in the senator’s home state. In 2016, Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey “blue-slipped” an Obama nominee named Rebecca Haywood. Subsequently, Haywood, an African-American, never got a hearing, let alone a vote. However, here we are two years later, and Pennsylvania’s other senator, Democrat Bob Casey, Jr. “blue-slipped” Porter. Grassley simply ignored Casey.
For his part, Porter is the truest of true believers, as the Alliance For Justice makes clear…
So, in exchange for allowing Heidi Heitkamp, and Joe Manchin, and Jon Tester to go home and campaign, Schumer has stuck the rest of us with these people forever. And the hell of it is, as several former Senate aides have pointed out, Schumer could have had his cake and eaten it, too. Burgess Everett in Politico gives us the bare bones of what could have been done.
Under Senate rules, even if Democrats fought the nominees tooth and nail and forced the Senate to burn 30 hours of debate between each one, McConnell would have gotten them all confirmed by Nov. 1. Democrats could have conceivably left a skeleton crew of senators in Washington to force the GOP to take roll call votes on the judges over the next few weeks, although that tactic is not typically employed by the minority.
In short, Schumer could have let his endangered incumbents go home to campaign and still thrown sand in the gears by employing senators who are not up for re-election until 2020. This could have been done. Does anyone with the brains of a turnip not believe that, were the roles reversed, it would have been done? McConnell would have done this to Schumer, and without blinking an eye.
[…]
Schumer’s leadership on this issue has been appalling.
I’m sure he’s a swell guy and a good fundraiser, but Chuck Schumer is not a wartime consigliere. And he is not suited to these times; he’s too close to Wall Street and deals like this make him look like the biggest sucker in two cordovans.
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FFS, you’re joking, right? Exhibit A: Installation of Whitaker, known opponent of probe, who suggested reducing its budget to basically zero, to oversee it.
Are we still keeping our powder dry?
Why did Mueller allow the political calendar to control and probably neutralize his investigation? He has more than enough evidence to subpoena Trump…and yet he keeps allowing Trump and McConnell time to stack the system with loyalists to the white nationalist movement.
Did they have to wake Chuck Schumer up from a nap for this lame inexcusable response to another act of obstruction by Trump?
Trump has already outdone Nixon and this massacre of Sessions is even more grandiose Vs Nixon’s firing of Archibald Cox.
Schumer couldn’t fight a mouse with both hands…Trump is laughing all the way to the bank and Chuck Schumer cowers in the corner. While Trump is a disgraceful lying mobster…Schumer is a disgracefully weak Democratic leader in the Senate. Makes Reid look like a tiger.
The Dems #1 priority should be a wartime party leader in the Senate…not some rich semi-retired old dude like Schumer.
And what would Schumer have gained by opposing the judges? Perhaps something along the lines of the spectacular success we had with Kavanaugh? And maybe Patrick Morrisey representing West Virginia?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not an enormous Schumer fan and never have been, and I wouldn’t mind seeing him replaced at some point – though I don’t think his failure to hold his breath and turn blue over Sessions getting the gate should be exhibit one in the case for his removal. Wartime consigliere? This isn’t a movie.
But I’m not sure who should replace him. I mean, give 'em hell Harry is gone (and I’d like to note that when he wasn’t gone, there was no end of grousing about him too, no matter that he knew how to rumble) and I really don’t have a clue who there is on our side of the Senate that has the required gravitas but still would be less corporate interest friendly than Schumer – which is Pierce’s big beef, and apparently yours as well, and to a certain extent it’s a beef of mine too (though I have others).
But the Senate is the house of the big boys and girls and they’re all strongly wooed. And they mostly all play ball. Hard fightin’ aw shucks farmer Jon Tester is the second largest recipient of lobbyist cash. I like him anyway and try to like what he votes for (hard a lot of the time) and I love the way he took on Trump and won, but I don’t think he’s the fighter any of us have in mind.
So who is? I’d really like to hear back from you on who the fighter is that you think we need, but still clean, and yet still on the inside party track. Because nobody who isn’t on the inside party track is going to be inline for Schumer’s job and while that makes me pretty sad, that’s how it is.
Unless he is knifing President Obama and his Party in the back on the JPOC.
The Dems need a wartime Consiglieri in the Senate. I like Chuck but he is not it.
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Yeah seriously, we only needed one Dem rep to stay behind and ALL of the GOP members would have had to stay behind and be there to vote to confirm the judges. A real leader (especially one not up for reelection) would have done it himself to send a message and show real, ya know, leadership. Not only would he look strong and effective, but it would have given the Dems a real electoral advantage over the GOP.