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Three Words That Might Save the Supreme Court
What it will take to stop corruption of the highest order.
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It took Mitch McConnell 79 minutes to announce that "President Trump's nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate."
We shouldn't be surprised. Earlier this spring, he was saying that he would push a replacement through no matter how close it was to the election, per the New Yorker. "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."
All of this, of course, should be moot. McConnell famously blocked Obama's nominee to the court, Merrick Garland, in 2016. His justification was that this was too close to the next Presidential Election.
"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."
— Mitch McConnell, March 2016.
This, of course, was not a rule that existed. McConnell made it up. And it worked. For over 200 days Garland was nominated and no meetings were ever held. Trump got elected and Gorsuch took Garland's spot. This was not a clever ploy. It was a dereliction of duty. And it worked.
Merrick Garland's name is already trending. But while that is the point, it takes the spotlight off of what really happened.
The Three Words: The McConnell Rule.
The only way to stop a Trump nominee is to convince four Republican Senators to follow the rule that the Senate followed in 2016. To do this, we will need political reporters to hold Senators accountable. Ask if they will follow the McConnell Rule, ask follow-ups, don't let them avoid the issue, make it the lead story every day.
The media can't "both sides" this one. Mitch McConnell created a rule in 2016 that you can't fill a Supreme Court vacancy in a Presidential Election year. We knew then it was a transparent power grab. But once you create a rule, even you have to follow it.
News has become a business. But right now we need it to be an institution. News cycles are faster than ever. In September alone, Trump has faced 5 different scandals worse than Romney's damaging 47% quote (calling our troops suckers and losers, knowing Covid-19 was lethal and airborne in early February while admitting to downplaying the virus, the 26th woman to accuse Trump of sexual assault, calling his own supporters disgusting people, saying that deaths in blue states shouldn't count.) All of that happened in the last two weeks. And yet, none of these huge scandals have the staying power of a Howard Dean "Yeow" or a Dukakis tank photo op. If you have one scandal it's a big deal. If you have hundreds, who can keep up?
Well, it's time for the media to keep up with this story. It's kind of a big deal. All Republican Senators need to be on the hook for this. They followed the McConnell Rule in 2016. They should be expected to follow it in 2020.
- Politics
- News
- Supreme Court
- Mitch Mcconnell
- Trump
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