Sauce for the goose … what comes around, goes around … be careful what you wish for … Pick your proverb, adage, or cliché ahead of reading this Reuters report on Democratic unhappiness over Donald Trump’s success in appointed judges to the federal bench. Try looking for one name in particular, who really should get all the credit for Trump’s success:
As President Donald Trump pursues his goal of making the federal judiciary more conservative, his fellow Republicans who control the Senate are poised to confirm another batch of his picks for influential U.S. appeals courts to the dismay of some Democrats.
Actually, I’m betting that it’s “to the dismay” of all Democrats. Mitch McConnell has set up another half-dozen confirmations this week, and says he will keep the Senate in session long enough to fill as many slots as he can by the end of the year. They will have lots and lots of opportunities to vent their dismay, but little chance of doing anything about it.
Why? Reuters’ Lawrence Hurley doesn’t quite get around to explaining that:
A long-standing Senate tradition that gave senators clout over judicial nominees from their home states has been fraying for years, meaning Democrats have less of a chance of blocking appointees they oppose, as they did with some success during Republican former President George W. Bush’s administration. …
For Trump and his party, setting aside a long-standing Senate tradition may be a worthwhile price to pay to achieve what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has called a top goal: shifting the ideological composition of the federal judiciary to the right.
Ahem. Exactly who was it that set aside long-standing Senate tradition in order to force presidential nominees to the bench through to confirmation? That would be Harry Reid, who changed the rules and ended precedent unilaterally to thwart the Republican obstruction of nominees that had followed the Democratic obstruction during the Bush administration to which Hurley refers. It was his nuclear option in 2013 that allowed Barack Obama to stack the DC appellate court and eliminate the GOP minority’s ability to slow down the process. He also changed the rules on all other kinds of presidential appointments, which caused Democrats a lot of “dismay” when Trump selected his cabinet officials.
How many times does the name Harry Reid come up in Hurley’s account? Zero.
At least NBC manages to get its history straight:
Harry Reid is the typical liberal. They enact policies that benefit their temporal prestige and ignore the ongoing damage.
Thank you, Harry, for a dire threat to American freedom is being attacked. Had Hillary won, the flooding of the judicial system with more and more activist liberal judges (those who feel obligated to rule by what one might secretly “intend” than by the rule of law) and Supreme Court Justices would have proceeded unabated. Currently Republicans can get their appointments through without the left’s impediments. Justice would have never been the same.