This morning Senate Dems announced they had enough votes to filibuster the Gorsuch nomination. It’s assumed Republicans will go nuclear and change Senate rules to allow Gorsuch to be confirmed with a simple majority. And, of course, they will blame Democrats for forcing them to do that.
But, putting aside the fact that Republicans didn’t even give Merrick Garland a hearing for months, Democrats are standing on the moral high ground on the merits. That’s because, at his confirmation hearings, Gorsuch steadily evaded questions designed to pin down his legal views, denying voters any insight into those views. This gives Dems both a defense against the “obstructionist†charge and gives them the better political argument.
Some have argued that Democrats should save their political capital for a future nominee. Gorsuch, this argument goes, won’t shift the balance of power on the court since his views essentially align with those of his predecessor, the late Antonin Scalia. Democrats, then, should hold their fire for a future Trump nominee to replace one of the liberal justices on the court, when the future of abortion rights, for example, hangs in the balance.
But Gorsuch has handed Democrats a robust case against his confirmation, and they should use it. First, there are his rulings. He ruled against a worker suing his employer in what’s now known as the frozen trucker case, siding with an employer who fired its driver Alphonse Maddin, for abandoning his incapacitated (and unheated) truck in subzero temperatures. Gorsuch also ruled for Hobby Lobby over its female employees, holding that a privately held corporation had a religious right to object to the contraception coverage requirement under the Affordable Care Act. In both, Gorsuch showed he’s inclined to interpret statutes as protective of companies with readings that most Democrats and liberal legal experts find highly questionable.
Do read the whole thing.
Wow, Democrats who did not walk in saying “bipartisan” when the Republicans haven’t done anything bipartisan in decades.
The Republicans would have gone nuclear on the next nominee who was challenged, anyway, so why not put our cards on the table now?
The Republicans would have gone nuclear on the next nominee who was challenged, anyway, so why not put our cards on the table now?
My thought also..If they really want to utilized their political capital wisely and possibly build on what capital they have they should work as hard as they can to cripple or destroy Trump’s presidency. If they give him breathing space or even the slightest victory by employing some strategy intended for a different objective other than hobbling Trump’s presidency they might lose whatever impetus is in Trump’s rapidly declining poll numbers. Trump is on the ropes …keep him there.
Fuck that he’s a good man rhetoric regarding Gorsuch..Just by the fact that Trump nominated him.. He’s tainted goods.
Barbara knows how hard a hill Claire faces in Missourah…Where the definition of a virgin is any 13 yr old girl who can outrun her uncles.
“Gorsuch also ruled for Hobby Lobby over its female employees, holding that a privately held corporation had a religious right to object to the contraception coverage requirement under the Affordable Care Act.”
Yes, of course he did.
(And, predictably, he’ll almost assuredly vote FOR a state’s religious right to deny women any opportunity to have an abortion.
And then, no child care leave with wages. “Get back to work, you, Ho!”
It wasn’t too long about when women gave birth right in the fields, and went right back to hoing – what did you think I meant?).
He ruled WITH the company’s decision to fire that nearly-frozen Popsicle-like truck driver for driving-off in his cab in a killer cold snap, while leaving his company’s (LOCKED!!!!!) precious cargo behind – which was obviously more precious than the driver’s life, to all appearances.
And if the driver HAD died, he’s have sided with the company if the man’s family sued them.
Hell, in tough economic times, you can always find a new truck driver.
Let the company save its money to find and pay his replacement – for less money, of course, since s/he’ll have less experience (or somthing).
Hell, I see a new reality show on the horizon, about groups of truckers trying to survive in death-defying circumstances, as they try to bring their truckload to its destination:
We can call it, “The Wages of Fear.”
NO!
Have the production company pay for the driver’s pay and the trucking company’s load:
Make it, “The Fear of Wages!”
Btw – yeah, please go and and filibuster!
And then we can all ROTFLOAO when the Republicans whine about ‘the lack of comity, like they had back in the old days.”
Please…
You can’t have comity when over half of a group is a bunch of dip/nit/half/FUCK-witted anti-science uber-“Christians!” who want to take the country back to before the 20th Century.
I bet if some Democratic Senator were to give AG Sessions a wedgie today, they’d find he was wearing his “Stars & Bars” underwear!
Hell, most of the GOP probably has the same kind on today.