Given the FBI's investigations into ties btwn Trump & Russia, the Senate should IMMEDIATELY pause #GorsuchHearing. #StopGorsuch #WeObject pic.twitter.com/pXh4hKC16i
— NARAL (@NARAL) March 22, 2017
The NYTimes:
…While a parade of witnesses spoke in the committee room, Mr. Schumer went to the Senate floor and announced that he and other Democrats would refuse to permit an up-or-down vote on President Trump’s nominee. The Senate’s “cloture” rule requires a supermajority of 60 votes to overcome such a filibuster.
“After careful deliberation I have concluded that I cannot support Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court,” Mr. Schumer said. “His nomination will have a cloture vote. He will have to earn 60 votes for confirmation. My vote will be no, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.”
If at least 41 of the chamber’s 48 Democrats stick together in the filibuster, it would force the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, to decide whether to try to change the rules of the chamber and approve Judge Gorsuch with a simple majority. Mr. Trump has urged Mr. McConnell to take that step if necessary.
Mr. McConnell has said he wants the Senate to confirm Judge Gorsuch to fill the vacancy, which was created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia a year ago, before departing for a scheduled recess on April 7….
A lot more surprising is that Schumer Mr. McConnell has said he wants the Senate to confirm Judge Gorsuch to fill the vacancy, which was created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia a year ago, before departing for a scheduled recess on April 7.is saying Gorsuch will need 60 votes. Daring McConnell to go nuclear
— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) March 23, 2017
Merrick Garland should show up at the Gorsuch hearings. A dem senator should bring him as a guest & let him ask a question like "WTF??"
— Baratunde (@baratunde) March 22, 2017
Neil Gorsuch was hatched in a Federalist Society lab: https://t.co/A4qPNO1pFb via @slate
— Ann Ravel (@AnnMRavel) March 22, 2017
germy
Gorsuch is such an actor, with his dramatic pauses and pained facial expressions.
Lee
I’m ignoring the ‘SCOTUS’ part of the ‘Open SCOTUS Thread’ to post this OT:
Marines Take 4 Villages in Syria
That certainly didn’t take long.
Barbara
My husband used to dabble in the Federalist Society when he was a law student and then he realized that what most of his fellow law students meant by conservatism was conserving everything they stood to inherit, including their privilege. So he stopped attending. They really believe that power is their birthright.
SRW1
Gosh, it looks like that folksy demeanor didn’t quite work.
Elizabelle
Fillibuster him. We can get by with 8 justices. Or 7. Or 6. But no Trump nominees. It’s a stolen USSC seat.
Trump is an illegitimate president. Let him fall first.
Baud
This is a nice surprise. And Schumer is doing a good job so far.
TenguPhule
Gorsuch authored the “Freezing trucker” dissent.
As such, he’s not fit to serve drinks, let alone the court.
ETA: Gorsuch argued that a man who was in danger of freezing to death due to the negligence of his employer had no reasonable defense for being fired by that employer when taking action to save his own life because the law did not explicitly predict the precise situation that the trucker found himself in.
Corner Stone
@Barbara:
Federalist Society is always a Full Stop AFAIAC. No need to ask any further questions.
Elizabelle
@SRW1: I had never heard of the Frozen Trucker case until this afternoon.
Brrrr. How wrong-headed can you be? Even in a technical sense.
lamh36
One of the FP may post this tweet later, but it’s too ironically funny not to share.
@davidfrum
GOP could sure use a community organizer right about now
Folks are of course posting some of their fav Obama memes in response…lol
Barbara
@Corner Stone: We are talking more than 30 years ago, when it was just getting off the ground.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle: Here ya go
Corner Stone
@Barbara: In general I will stick with my opinion. But actually I meant for anyone up for SCOTUS nomination, specifically.
lamh36
#TBT #GodbabyMaddie when she was 3…????
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/845027662007554049
Elizabelle
@TenguPhule: Thank you. Scanned that. Jebus.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: That article’s a good read specifically because it shows how he could easily have reached the same conclusion without being stupid or a dick.
lamh36
??? #NiceyLayla 7 Months
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/844984708744318976
Inventor
@lamh36: She’s so cute she’s WAY over the legal limit!
zhena gogolia
@lamh36:
That is fabulous!
Baud
@lamh36: The stare in the last photo tells me someone told her who the president was.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle: You’re welcome.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: Knowing is half the battle.
And Trump never would have nominated him if he wasn’t stupid or a dick.
lamh36
Lovely family news today. I have 4 sisters. the oldest of the 4 (1 of twins( had my nephew 17 years ago. My two youngest had baby Zoe & Layla 1 year apart in the same month. Now my 2nd oldest younger sister (2nd of twins) is preggers and having a baby in August. It ws already a thing, that my mom will have had 3 grandkids born in August, 1 year apart…lol.
So girls run in my family. The only boy we’ve had in my immediate family was my nephew. Found out today the sex of the baby of the sister who’s preggers…
https://media.giphy.com/media/jcPbZWF7J2LWo/giphy.gif
No One You Know
@TenguPhule: Didn’t read downthread, but does anyone else find it inappropriate for Donald to be playing Tonka Truck in the driveway after the healthcare vote was cancelled and Gorsuch’s verdict against the freezing trucker was hitting the news?
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: I don’t think Trump knows anything about him, honestly. But he wouldn’t be a Scalia clone if he wasn’t at the very least a complete asshole.
Hungry Joe
The Democrats’ being afraid to use the filibuster for fear they’ll lose it is like playing chess and being afraid to use your queen. Well, yeah, when you put her in play you might lose her — but sitting in the back row, she’s useless.
Miss Bianca
@TenguPhule: Just read about that decision. The callousness just stunned me.
hovercraft
@Lee:
It never does, our military is superior, the question is what happens next to those four villages. We have enough firepower to take most of the country if we want to fully commit, but then what? Iraq, Afghanistan?
TenguPhule
@No One You Know: Irony is a cruel mistress.
tobie
@hovercraft: Just to add to this point…we took Libya pretty quickly but a few years later the place was a mess. The rule of thumb seems to be don’t overturn governments or get involved in a civil war unless you’re willing to commit massively not just to the war but the peace.
Another Scott
@hovercraft: Taking is easy. Keeping is hard.
How long do we intend to keep Marines in those 4 villages (and in Syria in general) to make sure they stay “taken”? That’s the question…
And I haven’t heard a good answer, myself. :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who applaud’s the stiffening Democratic spine about the SCOTUS seat.)
Major Major Major Major
@tobie: We didn’t really ‘take’ Libya, we sort of let it fall on its own.
PPCLI
@No One You Know: Let’s keep our fury focused on the right targets. There are thousands of reasons to loathe Trump, and new ones are created hourly. No need to get worked up about someone taking a bit of childlike delight at a big truck and a horn.
I wonder, though. Did the truck have “Rosebud” painted on the door?
BlueDWarrior
@Hungry Joe: that’s about how i think of out as well. Make McTurtle have to expend the effort to end the Judicial filibuster.
I know last night/ this morning i was being cool on the idea, but that was in the realm of how to actually totally stop Trump from doing all this stupid stuff. But none of those points become relevant until we reclaim legislative majorities. Fighting rear-guard actions suck, but that’s where we are.
A Ghost to Most
Hell yes, Schumer. Make Yertle show what a party over country weasel he is.
Make him kill the filibuster.
laura
Ann Ravel is awesome, and was a Bengal tiger in enforcing campaign finance laws in California. She’s recently returned from Washington and the FEC fed up and frustrated by the fuckery that is dark money and all things “Citizen’s United Not Terrified.”
She’s definitely worth listening to.
laura
@lamh36: Crikey! It seems like that lovely babe was just born. How’d she get to 7 months so fast?
ruemara
@No One You Know: I find it inappropriate for the Donald to be in the Oval Office as well as his grifting children sitting in meetings. Him making truck noises and playing with life size Tonka Trucks is about his level, it just needs to be somewhere in FL where he’s under house arrest at 80.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
Congratulations!
Also, I am impatiently waiting for pictures of Zoe. She’s my favorite.
janelle
@Elizabelle: They should filibuster him and I hope they do, but he’s still probably getting on the court. McConnell will just use the nuclear option and get him confirmed with 51 votes.
David Spikes
I wish a senator would interrupt his goshdarn folksy schtick and tell him they’re sure it looked great when he rehearsed it in front of the mirror this morning, but they’d still like him to answer the questions.
Roger Moore
@Elizabelle:
Trump can’t be allowed to appoint any justices in the last year of his presidency.
WaterGirl
@Roger Moore: Which, hopefully, is this year.
SgrAstar
@lamh36: fun stuff! That little guy will be treated like a prince. Your family’s cuteness quotient is off the charts.
J R in WV
@lamh36:
Congratulations, Lamh!! Your family is wonderful, so full of life and joy!!
ETA: “cuteness quotient” is so squeee, I’m stealing it right here again!!! Those kids are cuteness quotient in person!!
Thanks SgrAstar!