This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1383501
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
Let me make sure I’m understanding this correctly: The judge the Obama administration nominated to the Supreme Court, because of his perceived inoffensiveness to Republicans, doesn’t want to offend Republicans?
Color me unsurprised.
It really wasn’t a good idea to nominate a centrist to the DoJ at a time when centrism is not a viable legal strategy. The crimes of Jan. 6, and the crimes from 2016-2021 that led up to that date, were committed by Republicans. There’s no getting around it. That’s a fact.
Having a man in charge of the DoJ who won’t pursue investigations of the most criminal administration in the history of the United States because he can’t both-sides it, or because he’s afraid of offending Republicans, is a mistake.
And we’re apparently stuck with it.
It’s institutionalism in all aspects of society, not just justice/legal. I can name three sectors which have caused great harm in their approach to the work they are charged to do in our society…not so much because of institutionalism, but because of lack of flexibility.
And what is flexibility?
It is recognition of the bad which can be swept under the rug with a over-reliance on rote institutionalism
Garland really needs to go. We all saw him as something he is not after he got fucked out of a Supreme Court seat. We saw him as a martyr, and that colored our thinking about him.
He’s dangerous. Not in the same way or to the same degree as Trump’s asskissing attorney generals, but dangerous nonetheless, because he cannot or will not let himself see what’s truly going on. Comparing him to James Buchanan is overstating it, and unfair, but if he doesn’t either leave office or turn this shit around, he may well go down remembered the way we remember Buchanan, fair or not.
I don’t think fighting an aggressive, ugly and unrepentant enemy with passive nice guy crap is going to end up a winner. It won’t be long when Democrats have had it with Garland and GOP’ers will be loving him.
It’s pretty clear that Obama made a huge mistake nominating Garland. Instead of a true liberal warrior, he chose an institutionionalist moderate in hopes it wouldn’t make Mitch mad (Obama spent most of administration in the quixotic hope that Mitch might someday like him).
Not only did Mitch return the favor by not taking up the nomination, it was hard for Hillary to get the democratic base riled up over Garland not being seated as a campaign issue.
Um, I can’t imagine Biden firing Garland. And, if he’s fired to encourage prosecution of (mostly) the GOP, well, what a mess. I know it’s a long shot at best but it seems to me to the Justice committee and congress is our best bet for Justice reform.
What’s the author’s take on Eric Holder?
What’s Holder’s take on Garland?
Not really said, but important nonetheless…
When Biden put out Garland’s name for AG, this was my thought as well. But a number of bright people said, oh no, he’ll be great! He knows and loves the DoJ, he’ll make sure the DoJ and the miscreants are brought around!
I’ve seen very little evidence of that. I understand he can’t just run out and charge all of the trumpanzees that need it without dotting is and crossing ts. But Garland has been too slow and cautious and too forgiving. We need to hit these motherfuckers with serious charges, and soon, or it won’t go away and will happen again. The stuff mentioned in the article are good examples.
The Democrats, from Biden on down, need to recognize that this is an existential fight against fascism. Everything must be on the table and we should not be bringing knives to a gun fight.
Remember on the anniversary of Hiroshima that although many of the atomic scientists did not want the A Bomb used on Japan, not one objected to its use on Germany, which was saved only by its surrender.
I can only imagine that Attorney General Garland is well aware of this issue and struggles with it.
Do mean Garland or Obama?
One of my grad professors, a specialist in Presidential powers, pointed out that no American President has ever voluntarily relinquished authority after a predecessor questionably expanded Presidential powers. Didn’t matter what they campaigned on or a switch in the controlling party.
After Cuomo gets impeached and the Don gets indicted, replace Garland with Trish James (unless a vacancy on the Court opens).
I hate to say it, but the instant I heard Merrick Garland was getting the AG nomination, I was very afraid it was a big mistake. He’s always been a centrist. That’s precisely why Obama nominated him to SCOTUS; because he was just un-progressive, quiet, and frankly old enough to attract some so-called “moderate” Republican Senators to vote for him. Of course, we all know how that worked out.
Biden should have put in Sally Yates. Or somebody as tough and as proactive as she. Now we’re stuck with Garland, who moves as fast as a glacier before Global Warming.
They needed to realize it 6 months ago. Now, we’re less than that from the midterm season and barely a year from likely losing the House and/or the Senate, which marks the end of any inquiry into January 6th and, effectively, the end of the Biden administration. It’s very close to too late, if it’s not too late already.
I do not understand the struggle.
My wrestling coach told me, when I was complaining during a break in a match about an opponent who had slipped something sharp into the padding of his headgear he was using to grind into my scalp when we locked up,
“That you can’t play by the Marques of Queensburry rules when the other guy is kicking you in the groin”.
it is really TERRIBLE that the DOJ admits that Sec Wilber Ross lied, and nothing is done.
I gave Garland the benefit of the doubt. I was wrong. He’s been a disaster. Time to go.
The problems of institutionalism, even center-left institutionalism, are at the heart of concerns raised by those who are promoting Critical Race Theory. Protecting the institution at the expense of justice…