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The Senate majority leader issued a statement where he says that "President Trump's nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate."
Hey all, real talk - this is one of the worst nights since election night 2016. It's easy to go full nihilistic despair.
Take a break if you need to, relax, walk away, remember tearing yourself apart over something you can't control or hypotheticals (granted which are shitty) doesn't do anyone any good.
Mourn RBG, and stay mad and vote but take care of yourselves for now and get help or talk to someone if you need to.
CNN just pointed out - Osoff and Kelly are running in special elections. If they win, they can be sworn in during the lame duck. They would narrow the margin by half (if both win).
Ossoff is way behind, Kelly is fairly likely though.
My optimistic side says they delay, and whether it's a lame duck appointment or somehow we make it to the inauguration, nothing too bad happens. Because if they overreach the courts lose legitimacy, at which point the left wants to pack them and the center doesn't care enough to interfere.
But my cynical side says if they ram an appointee through, they want extra muscle to interfere with the election and don't care about electoral consequences because they don't intend to respect them, at which point either civil war or full tilt fascism happens.
I'm not really enjoying living in exciting times, it turns out.
The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.
Expected, but still good to see, and it gives the incumbrent Dems up for election their point to reject a "qualified" nominee.
(not that I expect whatever asshole Trump picks to be qualified)
That is a lot more gloves off than I expecting this early.
Quoting for the tweetless:
Senator Markey:
Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an election year. If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court.
Response from Joe Favreau
Markey will not be the last, and it won’t be just progressives. Mitch McConnell is about to radicalize quite a few moderate Senate Democrats with this move.
I'm so sad. Are we fucked? Can we pull the whole it's too close to an election to appoint a new justice? I'm sad, scared, and a little angry thinking about how the gop are going to play this .
I'm so sad. Are we fucked? Can we pull the whole it's too close to an election to appoint a new justice? I'm sad, scared, and a little angry thinking about how the gop are going to play this .
Yeah, we're pretty fucked. Short of Mitch McConnell and the GOP finding some semblance of princples? The next couple of decades are looking very dark.
I wonder how many Senate Republicans privately don't want to rush it through while the election's still in question because they don't want to have to deal with Trump forever.
If they can get their six justices and dump Trump while yelling about how the Democrats cheated I bet that's maximally satisfying to a decent chunk of them.
specifically if Cruz or Cotton are Trump's nominee does that put Republicans down a vote? because that changes the Collins/Murkowski/Romney issue completely
It doesn't, because Pence, and also there's a decent chance Collins loses her election, so best case scenario is it waits till after the election.
I say best case, but it's not really. It makes no difference. Maybe they go through the process of the election to pretend that they care about democracy or rights, but if they don't win, they're going to take it anyway.
There is, as far as I can see, no possible way for Trump to "lose" this election now. Hell, it'd be less work for him to just stop campaigning because he knows he's going to issue an executive order immediately afterward if he loses, and either halt the results or throw them out entirely. It no longer matters that he has no authority to do so, he will be granted it when the House challenges it, and the new SCOTUS tells them to fuck off.
Then again, maybe Gorsuch and Roberts have some vestige of a spine remaining.
I'm so fucking frustrated, and I'm beginning to wonder if it's even worth the frustration. These shitstains probably think they are on the precipice of their glory, uninterested or uncaring about the fire that's burning the decayed and emaciated foundation below them. It gives me a tiny bit of cynical depressing "pleasure" to know that it is all going to collapse before they really get to enjoy it. But, like that fuckstick who walked out on a climate bill in Oregon, after his house burns down, he's going to blame the people who tried to protect it.
How fucking sad is it that we're all basing our hope on what happens next, on people who have made it clear, they don't care?
I don't think four until the election is impossible. I think four through a possible lame duck is harder, because vulnerable senators don't have to worry about re-election anymore, win or lose.
Collins said flat out no vote until inauguration day, but she's been extremely unreliable. I also can't find where she said this.
Chuck Grassley said, in 2018, that he wouldn't consider a Supreme Court nomination if a vacancy appeared in 2020 while he was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sadly he's no longer that chair (that happy responsibility goes to Lindsey Graham). He did say he would not recommend a nomination as recently as July.
1. Trump wants to start on Monday with the process of appointing a new justice.
2. For the GOP, appointing a young federalist toady justice before 2021 is win big enough to outweigh losing the Executice and Senate.
3. McConnell absolutely can confirm a new SCOTUS before the election because there is no black and white written rule that says he can't.
4. Collins, Romney, and Murkowski ain't gonna save you.
These are your starting positions. Gonna take a lot of 'splainin to convince me otherwise.
1 is probably their biggest problem. Were this like, Rubio in charge I think they'd get this through no problem. But Trump has a chance of fucking it up for them (see also healthcare repeal)
He has since vowed to fill any Supreme Court vacancy that might open this year, no matter how close to the election it is. Indeed, according to a former Trump White House official, “McConnell’s telling our donors that when R.B.G. meets her reward, even if it’s October, we’re getting our judge. He’s saying it’s our October Surprise.”
Reminder, the government shuts down on October 1st if a CR isn't passed in both houses. That may be the leverage that lets the House pressure McConnell, and for McConnell to potentially save some of those Senate seats by crying foul at what the Dems are doing.
Senate can absolutely still confirm someone during a shutdown, I'm pretty sure, though, but the government essentially falling apart for the month before an election is going to have repercussions and R numbers notably tanked during the shutdown to start this Congress's term.
Collins said flat out no vote until inauguration day, but she's been extremely unreliable. I also can't find where she said this.
Chuck Grassley said, in 2018, that he wouldn't consider a Supreme Court nomination if a vacancy appeared in 2020 while he was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sadly he's no longer that chair (that happy responsibility goes to Lindsey Graham). He did say he would not recommend a nomination as recently as July.
UPDATE: In response to my previous tweet, LindseyGrahamSC's spokesman just texted me a link to this story that makes it clear that Graham - in 2020 - said the Senate WOULD work to confirm a Supreme Court nominee this year if a vacancy arises.
Yeah, I'm sorry, but if anyone thinks that any quote from a Senator who said they wouldn't vote on a nominee, will actually matter, I don't even know how you could have that sort of fantasy at this point.
It has been made as clear as anything can possibly be that no amount of shame or past promises and pledges, pressure, or anything like that, matters in any way.
The only thing that will be surprising at this point is if they even try to pretend to justify it.
The one faint glimmer of real hope I have is if some Senate GOP try to tie COVID relief money to a SCOTUS confirmation. That's the one issue McConnell does not have complete control over. That's the only thing that might stymie a confirmation pre-election.
Collins said flat out no vote until inauguration day, but she's been extremely unreliable. I also can't find where she said this.
Chuck Grassley said, in 2018, that he wouldn't consider a Supreme Court nomination if a vacancy appeared in 2020 while he was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sadly he's no longer that chair (that happy responsibility goes to Lindsey Graham). He did say he would not recommend a nomination as recently as July.
UPDATE: In response to my previous tweet, LindseyGrahamSC's spokesman just texted me a link to this story that makes it clear that Graham - in 2020 - said the Senate WOULD work to confirm a Supreme Court nominee this year if a vacancy arises.
Translated:
"LOL, bend over and grease up, libs, cause here it comes."
Yeah, I'm sorry, but if anyone thinks that any quote from a Senator who said they wouldn't vote on a nominee, will actually matter, I don't even know how you could have that sort of fantasy at this point.
It has been made as clear as anything can possibly be that shame or past promises and pledges, pressure, or anything like that, matters in any way.
The only thing that will be surprising at this point is if they even try to pretend to justify it.
There's not really an alternative here, my man. Either we admit we're doomed and just stop talking about this, or we cling to whatever meager scraps of hope or desperation we can.
It's pointless trying to appeal to the GOP conscience, because they don't have one.
Democrats need to go on offense for this: If the GOP plays dirty, then they'll have no choice but to put court packing on the table at the first opportunity in order to fix the mistake.
This gives democrats the moral high ground to proceed with court packing if it comes to that, because they warned the GOP in advance. it also gives the GOP an excuse to back away from an early nomination, because it lets them paint themselves as the victims.
As a note on the insane nature of the current and future SCOTUS:
- When McConnell rams through RBG's replacement, a full 1/3rd of the court will have been nominated by Trump, a single (hopefully 1 term) president who couldn't even come close to winning the popular vote
- fully 2/3rds of the court will have been nominated by a party that controlled the Presidency for only 1/2 of the relevant time
+20
ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
Fuck 2020 sucks. This world is a worse place without Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Shes a modern American hero.
I want to think she doesn't get replaced until after the election. The way this year is going, though, the Pubs are gonna find some way to push their nomination through.
Yeah, I'm sorry, but if anyone thinks that any quote from a Senator who said they wouldn't vote on a nominee, will actually matter, I don't even know how you could have that sort of fantasy at this point.
It has been made as clear as anything can possibly be that no amount of shame or past promises and pledges, pressure, or anything like that, matters in any way.
The only thing that will be surprising at this point is if they even try to pretend to justify it.
This SCOTUS seat is literally everything they want. If they get it, they control everything forever.
This is exactly why the GOP started treating Trump like a king - They fell in line with him because they could get themselves decades of control, and roll back the rights of people they don't like. It has always been about the court.
So presuming that any GOP senator would be going against it in a way that matters is utter foolishness.
+33
SummaryJudgmentGrab the hottest iron you can find, stride in the Tower’s front doorRegistered Userregular
Collins said flat out no vote until inauguration day, but she's been extremely unreliable. I also can't find where she said this.
Chuck Grassley said, in 2018, that he wouldn't consider a Supreme Court nomination if a vacancy appeared in 2020 while he was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sadly he's no longer that chair (that happy responsibility goes to Lindsey Graham). He did say he would not recommend a nomination as recently as July.
UPDATE: In response to my previous tweet, LindseyGrahamSC's spokesman just texted me a link to this story that makes it clear that Graham - in 2020 - said the Senate WOULD work to confirm a Supreme Court nominee this year if a vacancy arises.
Translated:
"LOL, bend over and grease up, libs, cause here it comes."
Just fucking gross, dude
I don't know is that's cathartic for you but other people are reading here
+4
ChanusHarbinger of the Spicy Rooster ApocalypseThe Flames of a Thousand Collapsed StarsRegistered User, Moderatormod
you can't start crowing about court packing before the election when you're fighting an uphill battle to take back the Senate
Ed Markey has nothing to worry about. swing state Dems don't have his sense of security
Collins said flat out no vote until inauguration day, but she's been extremely unreliable. I also can't find where she said this.
Chuck Grassley said, in 2018, that he wouldn't consider a Supreme Court nomination if a vacancy appeared in 2020 while he was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sadly he's no longer that chair (that happy responsibility goes to Lindsey Graham). He did say he would not recommend a nomination as recently as July.
UPDATE: In response to my previous tweet, LindseyGrahamSC's spokesman just texted me a link to this story that makes it clear that Graham - in 2020 - said the Senate WOULD work to confirm a Supreme Court nominee this year if a vacancy arises.
Translated:
"LOL, bend over and grease up, libs, cause here it comes."
Just fucking gross, dude
I don't know is that's cathartic for you but other people are reading here
It's the truth. We are kind of more than a little fucked at the moment. Maybe it's me spiraling or something but I don't see a good way for us out of this. RBG holding on was like the one thing that we needed to unscrew everything and now we're staring down a 6-3 court who will happily prune away rights and everything we've fought so hard for.
As a note on the insane nature of the current and future SCOTUS:
- When McConnell rams through RBG's replacement, a full 1/3rd of the court will have been nominated by Trump, a single (hopefully 1 term) president who couldn't even come close to winning the popular vote
- fully 2/3rds of the court will have been nominated by a party that controlled the Presidency for only 1/2 of the relevant time
Oh, I forgot the 3rd crazy point:
AFAIK the Chief Justice is literally just chosen by the President when the last one dies in a double whammy of deeply stupid randomness.
Ted Cruz claims someone must be appointed because if the election is litigated there would be the risk having just a deadlocked court and constitutional crisis.
Also the most likely way this goes down imo is they ram it through after the election. There's risks in doing it before hand because it could fuck you over. After the election though, who cares? If Trump wins, it doesn't matter. If Biden wins, you steal the seat and entrench a huge conservative majority on the court. There's no reason for them not to do it.
Which is just another example of why the entire idea of a lame duck session is one of the most insane and stupid ideas ever implemented in a democratic system.
+16
ChanusHarbinger of the Spicy Rooster ApocalypseThe Flames of a Thousand Collapsed StarsRegistered User, Moderatormod
you can't start crowing about court packing before the election when you're fighting an uphill battle to take back the Senate
Ed Markey has nothing to worry about. swing state Dems don't have his sense of security
You absolutely should. The GOP learned to politicize the SCOTUS to win votes a long time ago. The democrats need to start doing the same.
Democrat enthusiasm isn't the problem. The people you're going to pull in with a strategy of radicalization are the people least likely to actually vote and a minority of your base
Republicans being on the fence is the advantage right now. You don't give them a reason to get off the fence
Posts
Just something this thread needs for now...
Ossoff is way behind, Kelly is fairly likely though.
But my cynical side says if they ram an appointee through, they want extra muscle to interfere with the election and don't care about electoral consequences because they don't intend to respect them, at which point either civil war or full tilt fascism happens.
I'm not really enjoying living in exciting times, it turns out.
A.k.a. "We're going to find a young toady who places loyalty to Trump over everything else and ram them through in a weekend, get fucked libs."
I'm not seeing any upside to this. There are so many decisions and things we're going to lose under this court it's not even funny.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
That is a lot more gloves off than I expecting this early.
Quoting for the tweetless:
Senator Markey:
Response from Joe Favreau
A pulling my hair out stressful time between those two points, but it would be something.
Not going to happen. This is 2020.
Yeah, we're pretty fucked. Short of Mitch McConnell and the GOP finding some semblance of princples? The next couple of decades are looking very dark.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
If they can get their six justices and dump Trump while yelling about how the Democrats cheated I bet that's maximally satisfying to a decent chunk of them.
It doesn't, because Pence, and also there's a decent chance Collins loses her election, so best case scenario is it waits till after the election.
I say best case, but it's not really. It makes no difference. Maybe they go through the process of the election to pretend that they care about democracy or rights, but if they don't win, they're going to take it anyway.
There is, as far as I can see, no possible way for Trump to "lose" this election now. Hell, it'd be less work for him to just stop campaigning because he knows he's going to issue an executive order immediately afterward if he loses, and either halt the results or throw them out entirely. It no longer matters that he has no authority to do so, he will be granted it when the House challenges it, and the new SCOTUS tells them to fuck off.
Then again, maybe Gorsuch and Roberts have some vestige of a spine remaining.
I'm so fucking frustrated, and I'm beginning to wonder if it's even worth the frustration. These shitstains probably think they are on the precipice of their glory, uninterested or uncaring about the fire that's burning the decayed and emaciated foundation below them. It gives me a tiny bit of cynical depressing "pleasure" to know that it is all going to collapse before they really get to enjoy it. But, like that fuckstick who walked out on a climate bill in Oregon, after his house burns down, he's going to blame the people who tried to protect it.
How fucking sad is it that we're all basing our hope on what happens next, on people who have made it clear, they don't care?
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
2. For the GOP, appointing a young federalist toady justice before 2021 is win big enough to outweigh losing the Executice and Senate.
3. McConnell absolutely can confirm a new SCOTUS before the election because there is no black and white written rule that says he can't.
4. Collins, Romney, and Murkowski ain't gonna save you.
These are your starting positions. Gonna take a lot of 'splainin to convince me otherwise.
I know Murkowski said not until after the election (which still allows lame duck fuckery, but at least won't burn the election more than it already is)
https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/09/18/alaska-senator-murkowski-said-friday-she-would-not-vote-for-a-justice-ahead-of-election/
Collins said flat out no vote until inauguration day, but she's been extremely unreliable. I also can't find where she said this.
Chuck Grassley said, in 2018, that he wouldn't consider a Supreme Court nomination if a vacancy appeared in 2020 while he was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sadly he's no longer that chair (that happy responsibility goes to Lindsey Graham). He did say he would not recommend a nomination as recently as July.
https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/410686-grassley-says-judiciary-panel-wouldnt-consider-supreme-court-nominee-in
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/18/how-ernst-grassley-said-they-would-handle-supreme-court-vacancy/5831959002/
And if it gets pushed past the election, we'll hopefully convert McSally to Kelley, at which point they'll be seated immediately instead of next year.
That's a real sketchy four. Has Romney said anything about this yet?
1 is probably their biggest problem. Were this like, Rubio in charge I think they'd get this through no problem. But Trump has a chance of fucking it up for them (see also healthcare repeal)
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/20/how-mitch-mcconnell-became-trumps-enabler-in-chief McConnell's name will hopefully be cursed forever
Senate can absolutely still confirm someone during a shutdown, I'm pretty sure, though, but the government essentially falling apart for the month before an election is going to have repercussions and R numbers notably tanked during the shutdown to start this Congress's term.
Graham has backtracked on what he said already and that he'd vote for one.
AP Reporter
It has been made as clear as anything can possibly be that no amount of shame or past promises and pledges, pressure, or anything like that, matters in any way.
The only thing that will be surprising at this point is if they even try to pretend to justify it.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Translated:
"LOL, bend over and grease up, libs, cause here it comes."
I can has cheezburger, yes?
There's not really an alternative here, my man. Either we admit we're doomed and just stop talking about this, or we cling to whatever meager scraps of hope or desperation we can.
Democrats need to go on offense for this: If the GOP plays dirty, then they'll have no choice but to put court packing on the table at the first opportunity in order to fix the mistake.
This gives democrats the moral high ground to proceed with court packing if it comes to that, because they warned the GOP in advance. it also gives the GOP an excuse to back away from an early nomination, because it lets them paint themselves as the victims.
- When McConnell rams through RBG's replacement, a full 1/3rd of the court will have been nominated by Trump, a single (hopefully 1 term) president who couldn't even come close to winning the popular vote
- fully 2/3rds of the court will have been nominated by a party that controlled the Presidency for only 1/2 of the relevant time
I want to think she doesn't get replaced until after the election. The way this year is going, though, the Pubs are gonna find some way to push their nomination through.
This SCOTUS seat is literally everything they want. If they get it, they control everything forever.
This is exactly why the GOP started treating Trump like a king - They fell in line with him because they could get themselves decades of control, and roll back the rights of people they don't like. It has always been about the court.
So presuming that any GOP senator would be going against it in a way that matters is utter foolishness.
Just fucking gross, dude
I don't know is that's cathartic for you but other people are reading here
Ed Markey has nothing to worry about. swing state Dems don't have his sense of security
This is an important battle but it's not the last one
Fuck don't lose your perspective people. .
It's the truth. We are kind of more than a little fucked at the moment. Maybe it's me spiraling or something but I don't see a good way for us out of this. RBG holding on was like the one thing that we needed to unscrew everything and now we're staring down a 6-3 court who will happily prune away rights and everything we've fought so hard for.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Oh, I forgot the 3rd crazy point:
AFAIK the Chief Justice is literally just chosen by the President when the last one dies in a double whammy of deeply stupid randomness.
You absolutely should. The GOP learned to politicize the SCOTUS to win votes a long time ago. The democrats need to start doing the same.
That is obvious bs
Which is just another example of why the entire idea of a lame duck session is one of the most insane and stupid ideas ever implemented in a democratic system.
Democrat enthusiasm isn't the problem. The people you're going to pull in with a strategy of radicalization are the people least likely to actually vote and a minority of your base
Republicans being on the fence is the advantage right now. You don't give them a reason to get off the fence