NPR’s veteran legal correspondent Nina Totenberg reports:
I’m told that the Republicans in the Senate actually sent some sort of a back-channel message to the White House that if it were Garland that they would confirm him if the Democrats prevail in the presidential election, that they would confirm him in the lame-duck session and that the whole caucus would be on board, that it wouldn’t be a fight.
If this is true, surely Obama consulted Hillary, and if not, she ought to raise hell (via back channels, of course) and make her own pick. If the deal is Hillary has to win the election for Obama to get his Supreme Court pick, then she deserves a piece of the action.
not only is the “we won’t even talk to you on a personal level, judge garland, let alone hold hearings” highly rude and disrespectful of the judiciary and an honorable man by senators who hold themselves up as guardians of the constitution, it underscores their disrespect for the presidency.
again, it’s evidence they view the black man in the white house as a 3/5 person and president.
these senators spit in the faces of the millions who voted this president into office twice.
Clinton Getting Tough With Trump Isn’t Going to Be Pretty
Katheleen Rearden
“If Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic presidential nomination, her supporters will need to be on guard for cheap shots about such irrelevancies as her wardrobe, voice and femininity.Not because she can’t take the heat, but because things are bound to get much worse. It’s one thing to be judged by how you speak and respond to a Democratic competitor who is civil by nature — and quite another as you take on a mean, bombastic hatemonger. When you’re battling such an adversary, you can’t pause to set a lovely table.Gender stereotypes that enable criticisms of Clinton will continue to exist. We can expect more months of T.V. commentators criticizing her voice, and to the supposedly clever yet disparaging adjectives they will use to make her appear overbearing.”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathleen-reardon/clinton-getting-tough-wit_b_9479408.html
Pat
Well said.. Still after all this time i find it shocking their disrespect for the very respectful Obama.. Ha, they don’t even try to hide it.. This from the party that created Trump.. Yep..
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
tony,
All the best to Mr Tolbert & Mr Gooden. Thank you for sharing their story; it needs to be publicized.
patd,
Excellent Post. Spot on. The President did get elected by the people, twice. Unfortunately so do these Senators. Over, over, over again. We term limit the Presidency for good reason. Why not all elected offices too?
sjwny and tony, downright irrational how they discredit the 65,915,796 americans who voted for Obama in 2012. don’t know the number, but bet that that was more than what put them as a group in 2012 (or individually in all their personal elections accumulated over the years) in office. how dare they ignore the will of the people.
wouldn’t be st pat’s day without the muppets singing
“God invented whiskey to keep the Irish from ruling the world.”
from the new yorker’s “Merrick Garland, President Obama’s Sensible Supreme Court Choice”
The day the President told Kagan that he planned to nominate her for the Supreme Court, in May of 2010, the Times ran a story saying that Garland “was widely seen as the most likely alternative to Ms. Kagan and the one most likely to win easy confirmation”; that Senator Orrin Hatch, the Republican from Utah, “privately made clear to the president that he considered Judge Garland a good choice”; and that “Mr. Obama ultimately opted to save Judge Garland for when he faces a more hostile Senate and needs a nominee with more Republican support.”
That moment has arrived. Garland has been a judge for almost nineteen years, and a chief judge for three. He has developed an indisputably illustrious record; he has proved himself to be the moderate, first-rate judge who, in the mid-nineties, Republicans as well as Democrats one-upped each other in predicting he would become. Garland is, to borrow the terms Obama used last week in describing his nominee, an “outstanding jurist” with “impeccable legal credentials, who, by historical standards, would not even be questioned as qualified for the Court.” By historical standards, he should be quickly and unanimously confirmed.
Paul Kane has an interesting (and short) piece at WaPo this morning about Myrtle’s obstruction of the Garland nomination.
“Senators sought to hide their political objections beneath a veil of charges about fitness, ethics and other professional qualifications,” McConnell wrote.
Political considerations, he said in the paper, should not disqualify a nominee.
Now, 45 years later, McConnell has reversed that position but has at least made clear the rationale for not even holding a hearing: the next election.
“This person will not be confirmed,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said. “So there’s no reason going through some motions and pretending like it’s going to happen, because it’s not going to happen.”
McConnell wrote that after unsuccessfully serving as the point man for two for Nixon’s appointees.
And in ’88 he voted for Anthony Kennedy’s nomination – in an election year – the last year of a lame duck, term limited president – I might add.
again, but with feeling
Faced with the hypocrisy of his prior vote on Kennedy for the Court, McConnell joined Grassley, who faced with the inaccuracy of his statement that the Senate had never voted on a Supreme Court vacancy in the final year of a term-limited president’s nominee, The majority leader and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee issued the following joint statement at a hastily called news conference in the Senate Office Building late last night:
“Never in the history of the United States has the Senate met with or voted to confirm a term limited, lame duck President’s nominee to the Supreme Court whose nomination was announced on March 16, and we are not going to break that precedent in the case of Judge Garland.”
The two chickenshits turned and ran down the hall to their offices and refused to take questions from any reporters.
The kind of song that can have you weeping after a few too many green beers: Giant Land
in 2008 Obama received 69,498,516 votes and 65,915,796 in 2012. that’s (if I added right) 135, 214,312 total.
mitch in 2008 got 953,816 and in 2014 he got 806,787, a grand total of 1,760,603. why are his to be listened to more than the president’s?
from wapo’s powerpost:
Of the seven Republicans who previously voted for Garland — a list that also includes Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Dan Coats (Ind.), Thad Cochran (Miss.), James M. Inhofe (Okla.), John McCain (Ariz.), and Pat Roberts (Kan.) — only two, Collins and Inhofe, said on Wednesday they were willing to consider and evaluate Garland.
“I will be examining Chief Judge Garland’s judicial record, as well as other relevant materials,” Collins said in a statement, calling Garland an “accomplished jurist.”
“This is the approach I have taken with every judicial nominee who has come before me throughout my service in the Senate, and that is the process that I will follow with this nomination as well,” she said.
thank you, sen. collins, for being faithful to your constitutional duties as a senator.
This applies to the Bernie/Hillary contest but could actually be the whole political microcosm in how to twist positions into pretzels and then broadcast the negative version.
raw story: Trump lies every 4 minutes – according to science
After a week of fact-checking Donald Trump’s statements for a total of 4.6 hours of stump speeches and press conferences, from a rally in Concord, N.C., on Monday to a rally on Friday in St. Louis, they uncovered that Trump lies every five minutes. The estimated total was more than five dozen remarks that were mischaracterizations, exaggerations, or totally wrong.
yet the media mainly accuses hillary of untruthiness. why the double standard?
“…surely Obama consulted Hillary, and if not, she ought to raise hell…”
boss, looks like she’s raising hell alright, but with the senate
abc news:
Clinton praised Garland as “a nominee with considerable experience on the bench and in public service, a brilliant legal mind, and a long history of bipartisan support and admiration.”
She then urged members of the Senate to “meet their own” responsibility, as Obama has met his.
“This Senate has almost a full year to consider and confirm Judge Garland,” Clinton said. “It should begin that work immediately by giving Judge Garland a full and fair hearing followed by a vote.”
Clinton really should get a piece of the SCOTUS action. She should let it be known (through back channels of course) that she supports Garland as Obama’s pick. However,should she become president that Garland would be her second choice, right after Eric Holder. Just something for republicans to think about in the interim. Me thinks republicans would move pretty quickly to confirm Garland.
Every once in a while I find myself musing on the possibility that Trump is an undercover operative to guarantee the election of Hillary Clinton and the turnover of the US Senate.
Present someone so loathsome and obnoxious that every female and thinking male of the species recoils in horror to the point of voting Democratic even if they are the archest of conservatives. Anything to prevent the Republican party from the stain of a Trump association.
So, killer whales in captivity will no longer be bred in captivity. All problems solved.
Let me re-phrase that release. Intelligent mammals conditioned to having sexual relationships over the years will now be deprived of those relationships in the interest of kindness to said mammals.
Have their ‘keepers’ considered the pill instead of deprivation of meaningful relationships?
Flatus
If they did the absolutely right thing, they would try to recondition those born in captivity for release to the wild. At that point I’m sure they will manage sexual relationships outside of what amounts to a bathtub.
And today I did Talk To The Animals
Pfffft. What makes you think Democrats would agree to confirm Garland in the last two months of Obama’s Administration? They would want to wait for Hillary’s nominee, it seems to me.
CajunJ… gee what a thought… I think you might have nailed it.
good to see you back…
CajunJoe, nice to see you friend. That would be the ultimate insult to Obama, if Dems end up voting against his pick. Interesting twist.
I can’t see that happening. At the ‘real’ lame-duck stage, Clinton will trip over herself offering her support for Chief Garland.
CJ, welcome home.
I would be surprised to see Obama withdraw Garland’s nomination after the election even if Hillary wins. He’s a pretty centrist jurist, which would move the court to a slightly left of center balance until RBG or SB step down, and Kennedy’s 80, so anything could happen with those 3 before the end of the next president’s term. A more ideological nominee would face a pretty certain filibuster even if the Dems retake the Senate. That would weaken the incoming president. Would dems accept Garland if HRC or BS wins in Nov? Who knows? But IMHO they should.
The Dirty Secret of Conservative Journalism
Little of it constitutes journalism.
If senate dems are so feckless as to not support Obama’s nominee, then they need to remain in the minority, and turn over the keys to the white house to Trump or Cruz. There is far too much strategy going on here that assumes HRC wins the election. with each passing day it seems as though that assumption becomes less valid.
Any looking at the vote totals in the Ohio primary should be very concerned.
Flatus
Have to agree. She is probably already letting it be known that if she wins they will get Garland and so even Dems holding off hoping for someone more progressive might as well push for the hearings now.
Oh you guys are no fun…
I love CajunJoe’s idea… it’s a big F-YOU to the Republicans.
Greetings, CJ!
For some silly reason, I just went chasing an abbreviated bio of Sen Barry Goldwater, long passed R-AZ. It is interesting and makes me wonder if we aren’t just going through ‘a phase’ right now. Here’s the link to the mini-bio:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0326400/bio
Bernie, I don’t want to see any of those blue signs in the Grand Canyon or floating down the C0lorado River!
Maybe Merrick didn’t want to be dragged through the mud and that was a condition of even accepting the nomination?
That’s the best-case scenario I can imagine.
Worst case, the GOP won’t even talk to a white guy if Obama has anything to do with it.
Quite frankly, it seems like a chicken sh\+ move on both sides.
When Irish owls are hooting… (Jamie, Cute owl…or is it O’wl?)
patD – Thanks for the muppet clip.
c’Joe – Howdy! Interesting angle. Anything is possible.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I have taters and cabbage waiting at home.
Oh, I dunno. Clinton’s numbers against Sanders seem pretty solid, and unless the super delegates switch it’s extremely unlikely that Bernie could pull off an upset and overtake her delegate lead, and Hillary’s numbers against Trump are improving with time (And Cruz’s advantage looks to be eroding – down to less than a point, and he’s such an unlikable ass, I expect that to become a trend). In the last 5 weeks the polls reflected at RCP are all in HRC’s favor against Trump, and they are getting more favorable with time (as are Bernie’s against Trump). And yes, Bernie looks better against both Trump and Cruz – but there’s that but for a miracle at this point thing against Clinton.
And as grist for the mill, the prediction markets are out there. Dem nominee has a 72% chance of winning, and Clinton is at 96% against Bernie’s 4% to be the Dem nominee, with Trump at 80% on the Rep side among those who put their money where their mouths are.
chicago trib:
On Wednesday night, Clinton made her long-awaited cameo on Comedy Central’s Broad City. Now, if you haven’t been watching Broad City, now in its third season, it is your loss: It’s one of the funniest, most revolutionary shows on television, starring Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson as stoner best friends in New York, but that description doesn’t come close to doing it justice.
The greatness of Broad City is its distinct and unmistakable sensibility, one that often seems an explicit rebuke to every asshole male comedian who ever stood in Glazer’s and Jacobson’s way. It’s a show about two women, but it’s really about women, in a way that the Wall Street Journal called “Sneak Attack Feminism.” The sneak attacks have already found their way into the campaign. A scene in which a man stops them to say, “You girls are so pretty, you should smile”-and they respond in the most perfect way possible-was widely circulated after Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough encouraged Clinton to “smile” on stage during her victory speech on Tuesday.
[….]
Other ascendant female comedians who have endorsed Clinton and helped her out have included Ellen DeGeneres, Amy Poehler, and Amy Schumer, who may in fact be more powerful than all of them right now and, one suspects, has something big planned if this turns out to be a Clinton-Trump matchup.
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/my2sru/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-another-super-tuesday-for-donald-trump
be sure to watch at 7 min. in for the bit on the convention and drumpf’s riot promise
So0 Charlie Brown has a backdoor agreement, This time he gonna kick that football.
Right now given the state of the GOP, I don’t see the need to compromise, Soon it will come to the GOP’s collective attention that this may well be the best they will get. The Dems just need to tie the fear of trump and his wing nuts to every Republican running. Start with Grassley, If you can make it too hot for him the rest will cave.
Jack
there was a message on my phone earlier this afternoon from a (202) 407-9986 about signing up to participate in a “Town Hall” to be put on by POTUS to support the nomination of Merrick Garland for SCOTUS. robo call? and why? didn’t call them back nor look at the online address they left. figured it was a phish scammer.
’72 % chance of Clinton’ winning underestimates a baker’s dozen of pro-Clinton circumstances :
1. the excitement of American women over finally having a female candidate,
2. the unity of the Dem Party,
3. republican hatred of the republican front-runner,
4. the front-running repug’s many divorces and bankruptcies,
5. Obama’s positive approval rating,
6. American hatred of the repug Senate and House,
7. higher employment & lower unemployment,
8. utter failure of ripu-nomics in WI, KS, & MI,
9. Black & Hispanic backlash to the white supremecist backlash,
10. economic expansion with low interest rates,
11. Much lower level US participation in Near East wars,
12. financial havoc in commie China, russia, Brazil, & the Near East, makes the US comparatively stronger,
13. The political indies’ distaste for the top 2 ripper candidates.
The Snake written, composed, and performed by Oscar Brown, Jr.
Obama, never had the guts to do the right thing…..he is still voting “present”!!!!!and ! you all can give him yet another pass if you want to…….he had many, many opportunities when he had an majority in both houses……he is a wuss period.
I can just hear what the gop will say about the next minority that wants to be potus…….
Back channels, back door deals, behind the scenes, etc, etc, passing laws that hurt the middle class………while pretending to be enemies all the while……the two partys get away with it all….all of the time….due to the team mentality……….I could not be an enabler………standing in a puddle of sweat b/c i was going to vote for Hilllary…..or anyone else that i could not feel totally comfortable with……….i took a deep breath…..and it all came to me….. i voted for…………..all of a sudden….i cooled off…..and whistled on my way home………i voted for the american people….not for the blue, or red team………..
the mean part of me……like when i lost everything that i worked for all o my life….due to these two hypercritical partys………my 401K my const. co,…….my home….I now live in an basement apartment……came to the surface………it took me a while to get over it…..and in not voting for any one of them……i am protecting myself from the harmful feelings of self induced hypocrisy…..never again will i doubt that voting for the lesser of the two evils…..is the wrong thing to do……
ps……even the threat of (the reason why i almost voted for the blue team) losing ground in the SCOTUS….to one team or the other….is not enough…….Obama made that very clear for me…..if he….the president cant look out for us by doing his fkn job…then in not going to let anyone make me feel guilty….
A little bit of Irish rebellion
Solar, Siddown and take a deep breath. Have a cyber beer on me.
My understanding is that rather than the Prez, the back-channeler was midge mcconnell, who runs the Senate. I could be wrong, but I think Mr. Obama defied that malignant dwarf by nominating Garland.
The long recess begins soon. I think Obama should use it to have Garland sworn in as an interim Justice. Then let midge struggle to pry Garland out of that seat, if he can.
HRC will get to nominate at least one Justice if Ginsberg resigns. More if any of the others quit.
What is the price of freedom?
Is the price allowing a Trump in the White House?
Is the price allowing McConnell destroy the Constitution?
Is McConnell afraid of a Trump presidency?
Now that it turns out the Irish, Bretons, Manx, Cornish, Scots, Picts, Welsh, Dalriadan, and other Gaelic, Goidelic, Britonnic peoples weren’t/aren’t actually Celtic, what the hell are we going to call that kind music in the future ?
Xr,
Thanks for the beer. Im fine. Every now and then a find myself looking at my wife Judy….and thinking that i will never fulfill my promise to her, and to myself…..to work as hard and as honest as i could, in order to have a great life when we retired……I am one to always accept responsibility for what ever has happened in my life…..good or bad. I never thought that all my dreams would go up in smoke due to the greed that happened in 2007-8and when there was no help for people like me…… during the Obamas turn to disregard me and others like myself….he instead helped the largest of the largest corps
……..it was no fun getting a knock on the door from the sheriffs dept…….telling me that i had 48 hrs to get my belongings out of my house……or they would be out by the curb…
Ive changed things around now…..now we are in a much better situation for enjoying our next few years now……
I ask myself often if i should just ignore politics altogether……but it all comes to the surface once in a great while…..suppressing these feelings would lead to an incurable state of mind….
Maybe people want to pretend, forget, or just chalk it up to……whatever……thats up to them….i know there are quite a lot of walking wounded that have lost hope of having even a fraction of what they worked so hard for ever become a reality……..
It is not in my nature to give up……so im now going to work again as an independent contractor for com-cast….7 months out of the year…….this will give me a way to make Judy the happiest that i can…..she never complains……and deserves a one hundred percent effort from me as long as i can….
thanks….lots have been said about all of the candidates…….even when Jim Webb dropped out…..things were said…i did not take offense…..the things that we are willing to over look about our chosen candidate is amazing…..when not over looking some faults of others just to prop them up……..im fine thanks pal……late
HRC will get to nominate at least one Justice if Ginsberg resigns. More if any of the others quit. – BB
And perhaps, get committed, get impeached, or die.
My sis is in recovery now from cancer surgery (big sigh of relief) and I am late on commenting. Of course HRC is on board for Garland and Obama repaid her support by further telling the donor base to starve Mr. Sanders…he gets no KFC (money) from the DNC, again. Remember, HRC will nominate a justice to replace Ruth Ginsburg after she takes the office in January. We will get two replacements under the dem tutelage.
Watch the snake, Paul Ryan.
Whatever the Basques listen to, I suppose.
Solar is right about Obama, of course.
All of this meddling by the WH, the DNC to unify the party behind Hillary, and, the RNC (in their effort to dump Trump) is really irritating. So many games. Just let the voters have their say. At this point, both sides are looking at a PUMA outbreak.
XR – Ear Magic?
Blue,
Unifying party members is the job of the DNC, RNC.. I mean, what’s the purpose of a party if members aren’t in it for the greater good? Dump Trump, you bet! I don’t blame the RNC for their bid to rid themselves of Trump.. Even though they created the Trump monster.. If he has more delegates and they don’t allow him to become the nominee maybe Trump will get his stated wish and there will be riots.Yes i believe he was telegraphing to his supporters to riot… I have no sympathy for Republican’s.. I admit i want them to lose lose lose..
Rest In Peace to the Republican Party
John Zogby is in mourning
Tony,
We can call them “obstructionist” when it comes to giving as little to the american people as they can…like the half measure of Obamacare……he should have pushed and fought for single payer right out of the box, when he had a majority in both houses…..a true fighter for the people would have done that imo……..
When The Bushes screwed us over again (silverado fiasco was just learning how to do it big time) How did Obama react?…where did all the money go to?….do we have better schools, better bridges, better anything?…….No but all of Wall st. and the Pharms, and specially the ins corps really made out…..why b/c they were obstructionist……naw b/c he like to do back room deals…..and compromise….his mo….is to go along to get along no?……just a cpl of wks ago…..they really became a huge road block for Him……..but he fought so damn hard on behalf of the military complex…..that he took them by the neck….and forced them to pass an 8 bil…….military increase…..I don’t know about any body else…..but that seems a little like being on the same side of needless spending……..what would have happened if they took just a cpl, few weapons …..instead of 20……we only spent money on 15 weapons that were not needed to begin with…….but he was just trying to spread it all out a little…..some for this military contractor, some for this one……….obstructionist….i don’t buy that……any way, nice to see you back pal…….later
Latest Numbers
Is Obama doing his job? He is being caught flat footed when he was told that “Russia was leaving Syria”……when are we leaving?
Ear Magic works for me, Jamie.
Solar, I doubt that Judy married you for your bank account. Besides, even if you were rich, you’d still have better attributes than the money.
Not that a ton of money wouldn’t help now and then….
I can’t refute the charges you make about Obama. I wouldn’t even try.. I will say, what else do we have to believe in? If i give up on the Democrats as you do, well, gives the awful, horrible GOP the chance to control the Supreme Court.. We must choose sides, sorry.. I choose the side, the Democrats that won’t steal my rights from me as a gay man.. I just don’t have the luxury to be the contrarian..
Tony,
Fine and valid points. Xr…..thanks……
I think of a lot of things when making up my mind about Hillary and Obama. Like when she backed obama up when he used drones for extrajudicial killings……don’t know how many innocent women and children died…….guess they were expendable…..not important in the long scheme of things……..she has a history of this u know.
She thought that her vote on Iraq was going to help her get potus……she now says it was a mistake….she just mis read the political winds is all.
She was Kissingers protege…she bragged about him……..how many, how many innocents were killed by his treachery in south america…..she is no where near as bad……….now that is….but if given her chance………who knows…..in 2009 she backed a right wing regime in……el salvdor…or hundures killing some activists ………i cant answer you question about who would be the worst just yet………ok im done
Fair enough.. I just believe there is no way you think Hillary Clinton on her worst day is as bad as Trump or any Republican on their best day.. Your vote is your own.. Trump, Hillary, Stein it’s up to you????
Tony,
Thanks for not being upset by what i said…….thats the way it should be with us all….
……will end this with telling u that there is some good news: Mayor Rham E…….has rescinded the tax on tampons…….guess it was his time of the month……
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH(gasp)hahaha…(choke)hehehe…(WHEEEZE)uhuhuhuhuh
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