The first week of April 2017 will feature the battle over the Neil Gorsuch nomination to the Supreme Court. Only one outcome, confirmation, is possible. The only question is whether Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is going to make the Republicans nuke the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. The betting is that he will and so they will.
One has to hand it to Schumer in that he knows how to be brazen. As Hot Air reports, he has offered a deal that the Republicans will refuse. He has suggested that they drop Gorsuch as a nominee and, in effect, allow the Democrats to choose one instead.
The definition of a “mainstream” justice is someone who regards the Constitution as a living document that can be stretched to allow liberal policies that could not pass the legislative branch.
In a sad way, Schumer has to play the hand he has been dealt. Senate Democrats and the liberal base are still smarting at the way Merrick Garland was treated. So he has to behave like General Custer demanding that the Sioux surrender even as they closed in on Last Stand Hill. So Schumer has to draw his line in the sand and see it crossed and his position compromised. Then the way will be opened to turning the Supreme Court hard to the right as some of the liberal justices start to die and retire.
The Supreme Court was one of the reasons why conservatives held their noses and voted for trump.
They knew that Hillary Clinton would nominate radicals to the court and that they would likely get confirmed. So far Trump, as mercurial as he is, has not disappointed his voters.
Even if President Trump utterly fails to enact any of his agenda, Obamacare repeal and replace, tax reform, and so on, his will be a consequential administration.
He is going to shape the Supreme Court and the future of American jurisprudence for decades to come. By nuking the filibuster for lower-court judges, the Democrats have only themselves to blame.
The other consequence will be how many Red State Democrats are going to go down by following Schumer and not their constituents. Republican control of the Senate may be assured for some time to come because of this fight.
