The 2020 presidential election had a bombshell dropped inside a tornado spinning in the eye of a hurricane that is nearing a nuclear power plant over the weekend when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday.
What will happen? Who will benefit? What will the far-reaching impacts be?
President Donald Trump already said he is moving forward, and there appears to be a few female front-runners for the nomination.
Republicans think this can energize their base by giving Trump a third Supreme Court justice, or at least the name of that third judge, before the election. Democrats believe they can motivate their rabid base of Trump-hating voters more. How this could be possible, I don’t know.
Junior Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) didn’t hem-and-haw as he did with now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He has already said he is a “no” under all circumstances. He then tried to raise money off of it.
Jones didn’t pretend he needed more info, or that some absurd allegations might be true, he just said he is going to oppose it.
Say what you will, at least Jones is finally honest about who he is.
Some Democrats, including Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), have decided if President Trump nominates and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) moves to confirm that they will expand the court, add two states, possibly end the Electoral College and declare being named “Trump” a federal crime.
2020 was always going to be a heated mess, but now the temperature has been cranked up, and the politics of this will be pretty dicey.
When asked about the politics of the election and control of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) said he doesn’t know how all of this changes the outcome of the races.
He added that those concerns should come secondary to doing the right thing.
“Do your job, let the politics play out as it will, whatever it may be,” he said on Huntsville WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show.”
Brooks believes the political calculations at hand shouldn’t matter to the people tasked with casting votes for confirmation.
“You were elected to do your job, this is part of your job,” he advised. “You might not like it that it’s four months from the end of your term, but you were elected for the full four years, not three years and eight months. So do your job.”
Brooks doesn’t believe that is what is happening here. He cited new polls in the field where candidates in tight races are trying their best to determining what will garner them the most votes. His advice to Republican senators is to lead.
“Be a leader, go ahead, and say, ‘This is my position and this is why,’ and a leader then explains it to the public in such a fashion that the public then says ‘Oh yeah, I like that,’” Brooks explained.
My takeaway:
Make no mistake. The calculations of Republican senators are exactly what the media and their Democrats are counting on here. This is the reason you are seeing stories about “last wishes” and legacies. They know they have to chip away at two more Republican senators and get them to announce that they will vote “no” on Trump’s nominee to stop a confirmation. That is now job number one for the media.
If they succeed, they will then villainize those who “did the right thing” and still work to defeat them in November.
U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) did not pick up a single vote by declaring she will not support a Trump nominee. All she did was alienate her base by declaring she was a “no” before the name was chosen.
Brooks is right. Republicans should “do their job” and let the chips fall where they may.
They should also remember there is a zero percent chance that a President Hillary Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Schumer wouldn’t have nominated and then voted on a liberal judge in this same time frame if the roles were reversed.
Zero.
There is no benefit to waiting. Attempts to undo the Electoral College, pack the court, add Democratic states and senators are coming. This charade only gives them the ability to pretend it’s justified.
Listen:
Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN.
