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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Hill: McConnell cries foul after 2 Democratic judges cancel retirement after Trump victory

by Alexander Bolton - 12/03/24 1:54 PM ET
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) vented his displeasure Monday after two Democratic-appointed federal judges reversed their decisions to retire in what appear to be efforts to stop President-elect Trump from nominating their successors.
McConnell called the unusual decisions to forgo retirement following Trumps sweeping victory last month a partisan gambit that would undermine the integrity of federal courts.
They rolled the dice that a Democrat could replace them and now that he wont, theyre changing their plans to keep a Republican from doing it, McConnell said on the Senate floor.
Its a brazen admission. And the incoming administration would be wise to explore all available recusal options with these judges, because its clear now that they have a political finger on the scale, he said.
This sort of partisan behavior undermines the integrity of the judiciary. It exposes bold Democratic blue where there should only be black robes, McConnell warned.
U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn, an appointee of former President Obama who sits on the court for the Western District of North Carolina, decided to remain in active service despite announcing in 2022 that he would assume part-time senior status.
/snip
Mitch hates it when someone gets the best of him!


eShirl
(18,994 posts)Thanks to your party, things are no longer "business as usual" in this country.
Trueblue1968
(18,379 posts)Moscow Mitch through and through.
LakeVermilion
(1,248 posts)Two can play your silly game.
OldBaldy1701E
(7,042 posts)(Funnily enough, I am wearing my Moosebirds shirt today!)
Ocelot II
(122,638 posts)La vieja tortuga is righteously outraged!
no_hypocrisy
(49,919 posts)JohnQFunk
(458 posts)They're not retiring after all
malaise
(280,450 posts)Fuck him
Donny wants a carrot!
😀
Cha
(306,797 posts)


DeepWinter
(775 posts)for people looking forward to a well earned retirement and putting it off for 4 (more?) years. You never get that time back, all over politics. Just retire. Enjoy those final years.
Fla Dem
(26,200 posts)Republican hypocrisy knows no bounds.
I was about to say.
bucolic_frolic
(48,379 posts)Dave Bowman
(4,439 posts)Are they all whinny crybabies or am I imagining things?
drmeow
(5,422 posts)when we play like they do!
Dear McConnell - may you be stung to death by fire ants!
kerry-is-my-prez
(9,525 posts)I can mail them to someone. We keep on destroying one nest, only to find they build another one two inches away. They are popping up like crazy lately.
rampartd
(1,396 posts)but not destoy them.
maybe we can learn something from the red ants
orleans
(35,549 posts)barbtries
(30,132 posts)the king of republican hypocrisy.
Coventina
(28,096 posts)
Irish_Dem
(63,038 posts)He knows full well Putin has been installing R's into high office for a long time now.
And he is fine with it.
ancianita
(39,456 posts)He's welcomed Russia into the US for at least 8 years.
homegirl
(1,627 posts)
msongs
(70,546 posts)Dennis Donovan
(28,686 posts)They lean that way.
milestogo
(19,034 posts)Please go away.
Nasruddin
(932 posts)WarGamer
(16,159 posts)onecaliberal
(36,594 posts)Dem2theMax
(10,551 posts)Go Cheney yourself!
AverageOldGuy
(2,422 posts)Cry me a river.
Karasu
(501 posts)Give me a fucking break.
Get fucked, Mitch.
RandySF
(71,643 posts)marble falls
(62,893 posts)SleeplessinSoCal
(9,836 posts)Anthony Kennedy.
spanone
(138,070 posts)AllyCat
(17,428 posts)Judiciary MITCH wanna talk about 2016 and 2020??
HariSeldon
(514 posts)If McConnell will tolerate her blatant calendar manipulation and disregard for controlling precedent to reach a conveniently pro-Trump (i.e. partisan) conclusion, then the leg he's trying to stand on is as absent as the soul that should reside behind those beady eyes.
lame54
(37,402 posts)2naSalit
(94,933 posts)Call a fucking waaahhmbukance already.
Snowflakes can dish it but they can't take it.
wnylib
(25,183 posts)dchill
(41,114 posts)wnylib
(25,183 posts)In other words, a typical Republican.
calimary
(85,095 posts)Like YOU DONt have AT LEAST one finger (if not more) on the scale.
YOUR team would do the same thing, if not worse, if the situation were reversed. And YOU KNOW IT.
Cry me a river.
Mike Nelson
(10,452 posts)... show them how it's done. Be a leader. Retire!
dlk
(12,540 posts)Evolve Dammit
(19,742 posts)theplayer
(27 posts)As if Republicans wouldn't do the same thing. And let's ask that piece of s*** Mary Garland how ferret was what Mc turtle did . Although Mary garland would have been just like having another f****** Republican. I won't get started on him. F*** McConnell the biggest hypocrite of all POS hi Cynthia
cstanleytech
(27,316 posts)SCantiGOP
(14,343 posts)He obviously is not familiar with the concepts of Irony or Hypocrisy.
GiqueCee
(1,647 posts)... and the constipated tortoise hates getting beat at his own game, so he naturally resorts to hissy fits and asinine accusations.
McConnell is such a despicable sonofabitch that even his own daughters find him repugnant.
The Unmitigated Gall
(4,707 posts)live love laugh
(14,875 posts)Dem4life1234
(2,339 posts)Sick of him.
tishaLA
(14,455 posts)Say hi.
Blue Owl
(55,190 posts)Fuck them BOTH to hell
LetMyPeopleVote
(157,454 posts)As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell complains about people playing political games with judicial nominations, irony weeps in the corner.
Link to tweet
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/mcconnell-wrong-guy-whine-political-games-judicial-nominations-rcna182685
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was called out by his Democratic colleague after the Kentucky senator complained about playing political games with judicial nominations. McConnell made the remark during a Senate floor session on Monday and said he was concerned that two U.S. circuit court judges who had plans to retire may not follow through with them in the wake of President-elect Donald Trumps victory in the 2024 U.S. election.
This sort of partisan behavior undermines the integrity of the judiciary, McConnell said. Never, never before has a circuit judge un-retired after a presidential election. Its literally unprecedented.
Of course, those interested in playing political games with judicial nominations could very easily turn to the Kentucky Republican by saying, From you, all right? We learned it by watching you!
If, for example, McConnell seriously wants to have a conversation about whats literally unprecedented when it comes to the politicization of the federal judiciary, the Senate GOP leader should be interested in his own record.
It was in February 2016, for example, when then-Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly. Then-President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland, a center-left, compromise jurist whod received praise from Senate Republicans to fill the vacancy, which in turn opened the door to a historic opportunity to stop the high courts drift to the right......
Nearly four years later, as Election Day 2020 approached, McConnell and his GOP brethren scrambled to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court abandoning the principles Republicans pretended to care about four years earlier even as millions of Americans were taking advantage of early voting.
Not to put too fine a point on this, but McConnell has done more than anyone alive to politicize the judiciary. To the extent that anyone is playing political games with judicial nominations, they are merely following the playbook the Kentucky Republican authored years ago.