In the shambolic and insulting manner that is Donald Trump’s way of dealing with everything, no matter how momentous, he announced two things Monday morning: one, that he would wait until Ruth Bader Ginsburg is actually in the ground to announce an appointee and two, that he doesn’t believe that Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish, which was that she be replaced by the next president, was said by her. He’s characterizing it as a hoax by prominent Democrats. New York Times:
“I think it’ll be on Friday or Saturday and we want to pay respect, it looks like we will have probably services on Thursday or Friday, as I understand it, and I think in all due respect we should wait until the services are over for Justice Ginsburg,” Mr. Trump said on “Fox & Friends.”
Even as he talked about showing respect for Justice Ginsburg, Mr. Trump asserted with absolutely zero evidence that her dying wish that she not be replaced until the next president is chosen, as conveyed by her granddaughter to NPR, was actually made up by Democrats.
“I don’t know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff and Schumer and Pelosi?” he said, referring to three leading Democrats, Representative Adam Schiff of California, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York. “I would be more inclined to the second, O.K., you know? That came out of the wind. It sounds so beautiful, but that sounds like a Schumer deal, or maybe a Pelosi or Shifty Schiff.”
It’s obvious from this crack that Trump isn’t going to honor Justice Ginsburg’s last wishes. Assuming that he does name someone on Friday then that would be 39 days before the election and the usual confirmation process takes 70 days. So the stage is set for acrimony in the last month of the election, no two ways about it.
And so once again we find ourselves playing Republican Defector, that thrilling board game in which you try your best to guess, “Which GOP senator might actually do the right thing instead of the tribal thing?” This game was played at the championship level during the impeachment hearings, so we hope that you saved your notes.
Once again, we see Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins at the forefront, saying that they disapprove of a confirmation hearing before the election. Collins you can take with a grain of salt and Murkowski will probably abstain, although she may decide, this close to the election, to be on the right side of history, who knows?
That brings in from the sidelines Mitt Romney, Chuck Grassley, and Cory Gardner. Grassley has voiced some support of the 2016 position that Lindsey Graham touted, that an appointment would not be made in a presidential election year. But who knows if he will stick by it? You saw how rapidly Graham did a one eighty.
As to Gardner, he made some noise about holding out, because he’s in a tough race in a politically competitive state that voted blue in 2016 and is slated to do so again. My honest opinion is that he’s going down in flames and it doesn’t matter what he does at this point, so his only question is does he want to remain a loyal Trumpite to the death, or does he want to be on the right side of history, not to mention common decency in honoring the dying Justice’s last wish?
That leaves Romney. He probably will vote to delay the confirmation hearing. So if Murkowski and Collins stick to their guns, a Romney vote would produce a 50-50 tie and then we’re there. But again, if you played Republican Defector during the impeachment hearings, you’ve been all through this. It would be naive to think that anything has changed.
Just think, very soon we will not have to listen to what trump has to say about ANYTHING.
Is crass still a word, or has it been worn out from over use?
It’s a very tired word, but nothing like “unprecedented” who is so worn out she wakes up screaming every day, knowing how many times she’ll be used before nightfall.
Crass works, Blue.
1st Rule Of Trump: assume he’s lying until proven otherwise.
2nd Rule of Trump: Always KNOW that he is DOING whatever he accuses others of.
50-50 – and then Pence gets to break the tie.
Exactly
Regarding RBG’s dying wish: Just when I think I’ve worn out my sense of outrage, the damned thing shows up again–this one today when I heard Trump hold forth on this wish being bogus and merely a fake one courtesy of Democrats–it raised both my ire and my blood pressure, so thank goodness I have low BP; the ire though? Not so much.
It is shameful that a great woman has passed away, and before her body is even cold, the republicans are rushing to replace her with some political hack that they can control! In 2016 with 9 months to go before the election, Moscow Mitch McConnell and his criminal cohorts refused to consider Merrick Garland to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the passing of Antonin Scalia, saying that it was too close to the election, and that the next president should get to make that pick. And now with less than 50 days until the next election, they want to rush through a pick by the illegitimate squatter in our White House who only got there by corrupting the electoral college even though he LOST the popular vote!
This only highlights the fact that the republicans will lie, cheat, steal, and commit any crime including High Treason, to illegitimately gain or hold on to power! This is another of the many reasons that we need to vote ALL of the republicans out! Every last one!!
Would be outrageous for RBG to replaced by one of the two women reportedly being pushed (two wingnuts and just unqualified). Bad enough Clarence Thomas replaced Thurgood Marshall.
Wondering if 4 Repubs quietly tell Mitch “no” but still have a vote… and it doesn’t pass? But somehow the 50-50 scenario seems more probable… “I tried!!!”.
if that was not her fervent dying wish, she would have resigned her seat sometime during the term, and at least before going to hospice.
Just something to think about, and I don’t remember where I read it, if the government happens to be shut down, say for instance if a budget fails to pass, legislators are not allowed to work on anything except getting the gov open again! And didn’t I hear something about a budget bill coming up?
Sorry, ladies and gents, floozies and rowdies(are we sure there’s a difference?), I’m going to have to fall back on my saying from 100 years ago(the 50’s were that long ago, weren’t they?) – “If it’s not important, I’ll remember, if not, maybe next time!”
What I apparently read, was if there was an impeachment, but I didn’t catch that the Senate could overrule not doing anything else. And I probably combined that with the House using the budget as leverage, but Pelosi shot that down tonight.
Diamond and Silk are doing that: being outrageous wingers not because they believe that crap, but because it brought them wealth and fame. Shameful. jobztip.com
Stop posting the same comment in every story along with a spam link.