(RightWing.org) – On Monday, June 14, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) turned Capitol Hill into comedy hour as frantic liberals panicked hysterically at the Senator’s latest statement. In 2016, Senate Republicans blocked then-President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, from taking a seat on the Supreme Court.
Republicans argued it was the last year of Obama’s presidency and, as the opposition party, it was appropriate not to confirm Garland to the nation’s highest court. The rest is history. Donald Trump won the 2016 election and appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court. In just one term, the former president transformed the Supreme Court from a slight 5-4 conservative advantage to a 6-3 conservative supermajority. Now, McConnell’s playing with Democrats and threatening to stop a Biden pick in 2024 if voters give the Senate back to Republicans.
It’s All Political Fun and Games
Sometimes in politics, a little folly goes a long way. It’s too early to know how the evenly split Senate will look after the 2022 midterm election. Apparently, McConnell thinks it’s fun to get the Democrats’ goat by saying things that could hurt their chances. Once again, the Democrats opened their mouths nice and wide and took the bait.
Democrats claim that McConnell didn’t steal just one seat in 2016. They also claim the GOP stole another in 2020 after liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away months prior to the 2020 election. Her death opened the door for Trump to nominate her polar opposite to the court; conservative stalwart Amy Coney Barrett. Democrats tried to argue that McConnell was a hypocrite for confirming Barrett weeks before the election after what they did to Garland in 2016.
On Monday, June 14, McConnell pledged on the Hugh Hewitt radio show that he would once again block another Supreme Court nominee. The Senate Minority Leader inflamed the Left even more when he stated that his 2016 decision was “the single most consequential thing I’ve done in my time as majority leader of the Senate.”
McConnell argued that the decisive factor in nomination or blocking is determined by whether or not the same party controls the Senate and the White House.
Democrats Wig Out
It appears that McConnell was goading the Democrats and having a little fun with his high-strung political opponents. As expected, the liberals jumped into frantic action. They demanded the Democrats pack the court now. Then, they once again turned on Justice Stephen Breyer.
Before the words were even fully out of McConnell’s mouth, liberals declared that Breyer, the oldest member of the court, must resign immediately to protect his seat from a potential conservative replacement. That’s despite the fact there is plenty of time for such a decision, which Breyer doesn’t seem in a hurry to make. Breyer seemed to ignore the calls in a March speech as he warned against viewing the court as another political institution.
Stroke of Political Genius
Calling for Breyer’s resignation is just another example of how Democrats want to use the court to enact their agenda when they can’t pass it in Congress. For too long, the Left treated the court like a quasi-legislative branch instead of the judicial branch. Now that their power is stripped in the courts, they are fighting to hold on to what they can, hoping the future will bode well for them.
If McConnell gets his way, there won’t be any Supreme Court-packing or new liberal justices. In the process, the Kentucky Senator is having fun with the Democrats, forcing them to use extreme language that hurts their cause and helps the GOP. They took the bait. They can’t help themselves.
Politically, McConnell’s statement was a stroke of political genius.
Don Purdum, Independent Political Analyst
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