"Senate Truce Collapses as G.O.P. Rush to Confirm More Judges Begins Anew"
And THIS is why the Dems are being blamed for all of this. Looking forward to having this @GOP conspiracy nonsense overwith. Cuz, wow! #ThursdayThoughts #VoteBlue
nyti.ms/2QWJIH1
And THIS is why the Dems are being blamed for all of this. Looking forward to having this @GOP conspiracy nonsense overwith. Cuz, wow! #ThursdayThoughts #VoteBlue
nyti.ms/2QWJIH1
2/"Senate Democrats struck a deal last week with Republicans that saw the quick confirmation of 15 more conservative judges in exchange for a rapid flight to the campaign trail. Liberal activists were infuriated, but after the brutally divisive fight to confirm
3/"Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, the agreement held out a promise of peace. “I would like to have the future mending things,” declared the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa. On Wednesday, at Mr. Grassley’s instruction, the
4/"armistice collapsed. Republicans on the Judiciary Committee convened yet another hearing to consider still more conservative federal court nominees — while the Senate was technically in recess. Incensed Democrats boycotted the proceedings, but their empty chairs did not
5/"prevent candidates for the bench, such as Allison Rushing, 36, a social conservative nominated by President Trump to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, from taking a crucial step toward confirmation.
6/"“If there was ever any hope that after the Kavanaugh experience we could return to bipartisanship on the Senate Judiciary Committee, it was shaken this morning,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the chamber, in a telephone interview.
7/"The hearing demonstrated the lengths to which Republicans will go to put conservatives on the federal judiciary, a signature initiative of Mr. Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader.
8/"Only a handful of Republicans attended the Wednesday hearing, but it checked a box to move more judges to the floor during the lame-duck session after Election Day...For their part, Democrats are facing some serious blowback from progressives, who were already up in arms over
9/"last week’s deal. Brian E. Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice, a liberal advocacy group, said Democrats should have demanded that Wednesday’s hearing, and another one scheduled for next week, be delayed as part of the recess deal.“To me, it’s a sign that they
10/"didn’t just get stuffed in a locker here; they had their lunch money taken,” Mr. Fallon said...The man who took Mr. Fallon’s place as Mr. Schumer’s spokesman, Matt House, said that criticism was unfair. Mr. House did not dispute that Republicans were violating the spirit of
11/"the peace offering, but he added that Democrats could do little beyond pushing judicial confirmations past the election. That has not changed. “The agreement we reached will prevent any additional judges coming out of the Judiciary Committee from being confirmed before the
12/"election,” Mr. House said. “Had we not adjourned until after the election, Senate Republicans would have been able to not only hold this hearing, but get additional judges on the bench before Election Day.”In the minority, Democrats have no power to determine when hearings
13/"are held. And should they remain in the minority next year, they will still have little recourse as Mr. McConnell and Mr. Trump move to fill the courts with conservatives." ~excerpts, NYT, 10/17/18
