The Kavanaugh hustle

[DonViejo]

By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Columnist
September 9 at 7:32 PM

Senate Republicans and President Trump share the same inclinations when it comes to one of the worst habits in our politics: placing ideology and partisanship above the health of our institutions.

While Trump is destroying the honor and reputation of the presidency, Senate Republicans are doing all they can to destroy the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.

When it comes to this last line of appeal in our legal system, the GOP has treated court appointments in the same way machine politicians once treated jobs in city sewer departments: If you have the clout, you use it to place your people. Period.

And on this one, the machine hacks hold the higher moral ground, because the consequences of the Brett M. Kavanaugh Hustle and the Merrick Garland Mugging are much greater than the costs of giving somebody’s brother-in-law the task of fixing the pipes.

Conservatives are willing to bend and break the rules, violate decorum and tradition, hide information and push Judge Kavanaugh through at breakneck speed. They want a Supreme Court that will achieve their policy objectives — on regulation, access to the ballot, social issues, the influence of money in politics and the role of corporations in our national life — no matter what citizens might prefer in the future.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-kavanaugh-hustle/2018/09/09/4d537010-b2c4-11e8-aed9-001309990777_story.html

[Turbineguy]

1. Maybe we have it all wrong.

Putin is not trying to destroy the US. He's just riding the coat tails of the republican party.

[MurrayDelph]

14. Putin is that guy

telling the alcoholic "Go on, it's only one little drink. What could it hurt?"

[dalton99a]

2. They want to use the Supreme Court to keep their stranglehold on America

[Delmette2.0]

5. +1

This, so that when they are caught breaking the law the Supreme Court will bail them out.

[dalton99a]

6. That, and to hold final veto power over Democratic legislation

should Democrats retake the White House as well as Congress

[Delmette2.0]

7. Yes, yes!!

[bluestarone]

8. SO TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!

[RedSpartan]

12. This:

[dalton99a]

16. +1. Why Democrats must expand the court

[Wounded Bear]

3. They consider our "institutions" to be tools to use to enrich themselves...

Like anything else, their plan is to milk the government dry and discard the remnants.

[DeminPennswoods]

4. GOP really has become the party of grifters

nt

[zentrum]

9. I worry the 3 branches

...are becoming so destroyed that even the elections won't save it the deeper structure. Elections will have no effect if we have a hopelessly corrupt Repug party running the court, the WH, the EPA, Educaton, ICE, the voting map, etc etc.

[DFW]

10. I think the Kavanaugh Hustle was called something else when we did it in Kindergarten

Your put your right foot in, you take your left foot out
You know you might have had a conscience, but you lost it in a rout
You tell a lying fakey and you hope it helps you out
And that’s what it’s all about!

[keithbvadu2]

11. Right wingers whine that democrats are picking on Kavanaugh.

Right wingers whine that democrats are picking on Kavanaugh.

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[Saboburns]

15. I sharpened my pitchfork years ago.

Somebody just say when.

[End_Electoral]

17. The McConell Question

In lieu of McConnell's statement in 2016.

https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2016-12-20/mitch-mcconnell-was-shocked-by-donald-trumps-election-win

"I honestly thought we wouldn't hold the U.S. Senate, I thought we'd come up short," McConnell told Kentucky Educational Television's Bill Goodman. "And I didn't think President[-elect] Trump had a chance of winning."

Now if McConnell thought the GOP wouldn't hold the Senate and Trump would lose as he states above, why would he gamble on not giving Republican Merrick Garland a hearing, rather than let Clinton win and appoint further left leaning justices like Ginsburg.?

This has always puzzled me unless he knew the election was in the bag. Taking him at his word that he thought the GOP had no chance to win, why would he risk not having at least a Republican Garland confirmed rather than Clinton's nominees?

It doesn't smell right to me and never has.