Like many of you, just trying to keep from slipping into a full scale panic with the death of RBG. Just try to keep it together and be kind to each other. There is literally nothing we can do but keep working to win the elections in November.
Reader Interactions
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Kathleen
Good news to share from Ohio:
https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/09/18/hamilton-county-gop-now-the-underdog.html?ana=e_ae_prem&j=90529164&t=Afternoon&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTWpZeU1qQXlOell
I have to focus on the good news. Also, according to my local BOE, if there’s a question or problem with a mail in ballot they will contact you. Ballots will be mailed starting October 6. I’m voting by mail for the first time.
planetjanet
I just took training to do text banking. That is how I am handling my grief.
Tim C.
Right with you brother.
zhena gogolia
JL Cauvin did an hour live taking questions as Trump. He is the most brilliant comedian working today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWTZiQ2vS8E&feature=youtu.be
MisterForkbeard
I think I moved on from panic in the first few minutes to just huge amounts of anger – and which somehow intensified when Mitch didn’t even wait until the body was cold before self-righteously declaring that of course Trump’s pick would definitely get a vote, etc.
So that’s where I’m at. White hot rage. I’ll take it.
donnah
@Kathleen:
We got our ballot applications and mailed them immediately (we’re in Ohio, too) and made sure our senior moms got theirs filled out and sent in as well. Once we get the ballots, we’ll fill them out and return them to the local board of elections, right across from where my husband works.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Susan Collins tweeted a statement saying the next president should fill the vacancy, though she had no objection to beginning the review of someone’s nomination.
For what that’s worth.
Heidi Mom
I just received voting materials to hang on doors and a list of 100 addresses to hang them on. All of the addresses are in our development, so this shouldn’t be too difficult. Not to mention–good exercise.
WaterGirl
@MisterForkbeard: White hot rage is way better for us than depression!
WaterGirl
@Heidi Mom: Great job. Go you!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Moscow Mitch may have trouble moving the nomination as fast as he’d planned. Doesn’t sound like he counted his votes(something Nancy Smash excels at) before opening his piehole.
Mai Naem mobile
@Kathleen: @donnah: can you guys take them into the recorder’s office? I know you guys are talking about the application and I am talking about the ballot. Right now I don’t trust the USPS to get my ballot in so I am going to take the ballot physically into the recorders office. I realize it kind of defeats the purpose of mail in but I figure its safer. My whole family is planning on doing the same.
My anger is aimed squarely at the lazy assholes who couldn’t get their asses to spend the <60 mins to vote, the purity ponies like Susan fucking Sarandon and the GOP who have broken every fucking norm for power. They aren’t even looking at the very possible negative consequences for them.
Sister Golden Bear
@?BillinGlendaleCA: He may have been trying bum rush those he thinks are uncertain into going along.
The Golux
I don’t know if anyone else has mentioned this, but I found it odd several days ago when the Gibbon of Shit suddenly brought up Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton as potential Supreme Court justices. Now it seems obvious that he knew that RBG’s time was short.
What a ghoul.
JanieM
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
If history is any indication, I wouldn’t expect it to be worth much.
But if she does stick to it for as long as it matters, kudos to her.
Rina99
I had many emotions when I learned of RBG’s death, so I decided to stay offline until they settled. At the end of the day, we lost the fight for the current Supreme Court back in 2016. I’m not hanging my hat on four Republican senators, so I’m all about winning as many Senate seats as possible while making the argument for expanding the court. What good is it to pass laws expanding healthcare, voting rights, and curbing campaign spending if conservatives can get a challenge before the court and have it all overturned? That should be the core argument.
JPL
@JanieM: Mitch can afford to lose a few so he probably already called her and said it was fine. I’m sure he has a noose around Cory Gardner’s neck though.
Thaddeu
Win the Senate
Win the Presidency.
Trump will stack the court.
If Trump packs this seat, the Court loses it’s cover as a high-bow impartial body. That is GOOD!!!!
It is a political body, and any and all path for liberals recognizing it as political is a win
Fight the battle, but don’t forget the war. The right wing has been using Court as a political entity and playing accordingly. It’s high time the rest of the country did so
Thirteen on the Court
Thirteen on the Court
Thirteen on the Court to make Racist-in-Chief John Roberts toothless
JPL
My guess on the next nominee is the Honorable Barbara Lagoa. She’s a latino from Miami, Fl, so all the boxes are checked. trump always mentions Amy Coney Barrett, but last time sometime leaked that she didn’t vote for trump.
mali muso
I moved pretty quickly from despair to cold fury and determination. My actions since last night:
donated to many senate campaigns
attended a BLM march this morning
signed up to do texting for the Dems
going to vote early next week (VA)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JanieM: note she says she doesn’t want to vote before election day, not inauguration day. I suspect trump, and maybe McConnell, would prefer to draw this out. trump because he loves the drama and the howler monkeys at the super-spreader events will love it, McConnell because Gardner and Collins can play the “I don’t know how I’ll vote” bullshit as candidates. I’d say odds are we’re gonna see a lame-duck vote.
MobiusKlein
For any action prior to the election for the Republicans, we should make it a trap.
Why is “so and so” rushing thru this nomination, while sitting on their ass for COVID / etc.
Kent
I was out volunteering this morning and missed all the RBG threads.
But I was thinking that the most “Boss” move by Murkowski, Romney, Collins and the other so-called moderates in the Senate would be to announce that they will support a SCOTUS nominee if it is a bipartisan nominee that gets 60 votes. Encourage Trump to negotiate with Democrats to find a candidate that at least 6 of them can support as was the pre-2016 tradition of needing 60 votes for a SCOTUS confirmation.
Not only would this take them out of the position of saying “no” and make them sound like reasonable bipartisans to the thrill of the David Brooks crowd, but it would set them up to be kingmakers in a future Dem-held Senate because if they manage to put back the filibuster for Scotus then they take away a lot of the steam from the Dems to abandon it for legislation in 2021.
In other words, this isn’t necessarily a binary decision between a party line confirmation or not. There is nothing stopping 4 GOP senators from deciding on their own to go back to a 60 vote SCOTUS confirmation as an argument (or even a “gentleman’s agreement”) not to abandon the legislative filibuster in 2021.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ll bet she doesn’t want to vote before election day!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Oy, looks like a good bet.
as a non-lawyer, I’m struck that she gave up a state supreme court seat to move to the federal appeals court. Would that typically be seen as a promotion, or does it look like grooming for her to be a USSC nominee?
MisterForkbeard
@WaterGirl: Mostly better!
I suspect I’m going to tell a couple of leftier-than-thou friends that they need to go fuck themselves. Already done it with a few of their friends – completely delusional nutcases, and I dont’ have time or patience for them anymore.
If someone wants to take this moment to drag Harris for letting previous AG policies stand and declare that she loves slavery, I’m just fucking done with you.
MomSense
I normally phone bank, but this year I am text banking. Right now it is mostly following up with people about requesting their absentee ballots.
Morzer
I’ve thought for a long time that Democrats were going to have to pack SCOTUS and, at the same time, expand the other courts to at least match the number of degenerate racists that Trump has installed. I’d like to see statehood for DC and Puerto Rico, plus a 17 person SCOTUS “to better reflect the increased population and wonderful diversity of our great country”. If Biden isn’t going to take the radical measures that this moment demands, we might as well say goodbye to anything resembling democracy or decency in America.
Anonymous At Work
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That used to work for her in the past: make public statements about having it both ways, and then be an extra vote for McConnell if needed. However, Gideon and Maine Dems have done a great job in calling her out on that shit.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hmmm, 53 is too old, they’re looking for toddlers.
Anonymous At Work
@WaterGirl: Just about to add that it could be panic, uncontrolled anger, or depression. Take a moment for the first, get help for the latter. All three, once back (somewhat, as 2020 will allow) together, get to helping.
Morzer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’d guess it will be Amy Coney Barrett
Sab
Here’s my guess: Trump is going to throw out all these names of potential women nominees, they will get all kinds of attention ( good and bad), white women suburban women will be wooed, and then he will nominate a white man from the Federalist Society list in the lame duck period after the election.
Sister Golden Bear
@WaterGirl: This Bird Keeps Itself In The Air By Sheer Force Of Anger Alone
Ohio Mom
Kathleen @1
Thanks for that link. I keep thinking I should subscribe to the Business Courier, they seem much more on top of things than The Enquirer (I know, low bar).
Maybe we shouldn’t be too surprised that Hamilton County is turning blue, all the Republicans moved to Butler and Warren counties as those places sprawled out. They can have the exurbs.
debbie
Forty-one Biden signs on a 24-minute walk! I’m pretty sure it should have been 41 since there was a signless yard where a sign had been standing for weeks.
Geminid
@Kathleen: That is good news from the OH1st. Chabot needs to go. It’s a very beautiful fall day in central Virginia. This afternoon I went a few miles up the road to Stanardsville, Greene County, and caught a speech by Dr. Cameron Webb, Democratic VA5th district candidate. He sounded like he’s spent a lot of Sundays in African American churches, which I believe he has. A good speaker. The event was sponsored by Greene County R.I.S.E (Resist Injustice, Stand and Educate). Over 200 people attended, which isn’t bad for a county of 19,000 people. Like the OH1st, the VA5th has been moved from Lean Republican to Toss Up by Cooks Political Report. Good luck over there.
Kent
@Sab: Yep. Trump HATES strong women. His only two female Cabinet members are both nepotism hires to minor cabinet positions. Janet Yellin scared him so he essentially dumped her and nominated a male clone of her, Jay Powell, to the Federal Reserve (probably his only half-way decent appointee in the entire government and it was to replace a scary woman.
The only women he ever has around him are courtier types like Hope Hicks and Kayleigh McEnany who don’t hold any actual power or responsibilities, they just spend their days blowing him so to speak.
They will dangle various female and minority candidates and then actually nominate some white man out of central casting just because they fucking can and no one can stop them. If we were still in the old world of needing 60 votes and needing to peel off some Dem Senators then yes, make it hard for them to vote down a woman or Hispanic or Asian candidate. But we aren’t in that world.
Poptartacus
Make dc and pr states
add 10 justices to the sc
any repub snivel and whine
spit in their face and laugh
Kathleen
@donnah: I’m dropping mine off also. Is Desiree Tims running in your district?
JanieM
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yes, that’s essence of Collins, a concoction of slippery, misleading weasel words,. What she doesn’t say explicitly is that the incoming Senate is, in this formulation, a nullity. If Trump is re-elected but the Dems take the Senate, she’s perfectly fine with the lame duck Senate confirming.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Sab:
I highly doubt that will happen. Too much has happened; I don’t think white suburban women are going to go flocking to Trump just because he puts a woman’s name forward
Kathleen
@Mai Naem mobile: In Ohio we can only drop them off at our Boards of Elections. Ohio Dem Party sued to get more drop off locations and judge agreed. Now Rethugs are challenging the ruling.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
While Collins is awful and deserves no benefit of the doubt, a hypothetical Republican with some integrity might say a vote after election day would be appropriate if Trump won.
I think we should keep talking about court packing just to try to keep them honest.
Sab
@Goku (Amerikan Baka): I am not saying he will succeed. I am saying he will try.
JPL
@Baud: Last week she did say she would not vote in a lame duck session. Of course that might change.
Baud
@Morzer:
My new rule is no novel litmus tests for our leadership.
hedgehog mobile
Checked my voter registration. I’m good. Ballots will drop in Colorado October 9. There is a ballot drop box five minutes from my house. Get ballot, vote, drop off. Donated (twice) go the Get Mitch or Die Trying fund. Writing letters to voters in Iowa.
RIP RBG. Let’s go.
Baud
@JPL:
I think it’ll depend on whether and how she wants to spend her retirement years in Maine.
JPL
@Baud: Will Fox come a courting?
Baud
@JPL:
She doesn’t seem like the Fox type. I don’t think their voters would enjoy watching her.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JPL: too milquetoast, Meet The Press concern troll, the Kennedy School, and a couple of dozen (?) corporate boards
Morzer
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/09/19/ruth-bader-ginsburg-death-mcconnell-replacement-rush-column/5837974002/
Baud
@Morzer:
Goddamn I’ve come to hate this type of sneering condescending writing style.
Kent
I doubt she’s actually lived in Maine for decades. She just pretends to. If she is dumped she’ll ensconce to some upscale DC suburb like Chevy Chase or Arlington and spend the rest of her life on various boards and going to the right parties and galas where people still suck up to her.
Baud
@Kent:
Probably so.
Kathleen
@Ohio Mom: I love the Business Courier. The writing is outstanding, their topics are eclectic, and the reporters are a fascinating group of people. My only complaint is they don’t have any African American reporters.
Morzer
@Baud: It’s a good article.
Baud
@Morzer: the excerpt does not entice me
Kathleen
@debbie: I see very few lawn signs in my neighborhood where I do my runs. I’ve seen a few Trump signs and a few Biden/Harris signs. I’m in the city and we’re considered “blue”. But very few signs overall.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Morzer: Not ghastly hypocrisy! Mitch McConnell probably keeps a scrapbook of liberals and establishment types talking about his ghastly hypocrisy and has Elaine read it aloud to him to get him revved up on the third Friday of every month.
I read that piece. She calls on Democrats to do Something. Blames Obama for not having done Something. Doesn’t define Something.
There is no “hardball” that could now or would have then changed the fact Mitch McConnell decides what the Senate vote on and then. Why is this so hard for people to accept?
During ten months of Merrick Garland held hostage, Ms Lawrence’s green-room fellow-travelers were more interested Her Emails, and Bernie Sanders was getting a bunch of excitable children outraged about WALL STREET SPEECHES! and something called TPP.
opiejeanne
@MisterForkbeard: There’s a lot of rage donating being announced on Twitter. I rage donated and rage volunteered this morning.
So, last night ActBlue said donations were breaking hourly records and then breaking those, again and again. I lost track of the numbers but this morning I saw someone post that it was over $50k a minute being donated. Amazing what a bit of partisan-induced rage will do because of Mitch not letting the body get cold will.
Sab
@Morzer: USA Today. Isn’t Susan Page their DC editor? Who paid $5000 to sponsor the execrable head of CMMS for some speech 0r award.
ETA Seema Verma who got her Ivanka jewelry stolen while on government travel business.
Kathleen
@Geminid: Thank you! Congessman Combover has got to go.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That excerpt confirms my view about the other excerpt.
Mike in NC
We live in a community of some 300 or so homes. Mostly retirees from NJ and NY. The wingnuts here just staged a mini-Trump rally, honking horns and flying their flags. Looks like they were able to field about half a dozen cars and golf carts. Sad!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@opiejeanne:
the graph is something to see
Baud
@Mike in NC:
The Aged Incels.
Geminid
@Baud: I find a lot of good reporting out there, but 95% of the analysts and commentators are just full of crap. As Truman put it, “I wouldn’t hire them to pound sand into ratholes.”
Morzer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think she’s got a point. Democrats do give up far too easily. Their leadership often seem to exist for the purpose of weeping and wailing after the fact. They haven’t played hardball and often seem to preemptively give up on the idea in advance. Politics is not a game for those who wait until victory is guaranteed.
Morzer
@Sab: Maybe read the article?
Sab
@Baud: It is the rare billionaire who is a Democrat willing to fund Democratic Party infastructure.
Sab
@Morzer: I did.
Elizabelle
This is so mean of me, and I am a terrible person but …
Saw photos of the outpouring of respect for RBG; floral and written tributes and candles on the Supreme Court steps. Got me thinking: how was it for Scalia?
In a word, kind of sad. NPR: At The Steps Of The Supreme Court, A Small Memorial For Justice Scalia. Scalia died on February 13, 2016. This is from Valentine’s Day.
And then the snow fell. On the memorial. An even sadder photo.
Joseph A Miller
I post this information all over the place every day. It’s EVERYTHING you could possibly need to know about registering to vote, getting ID, and an IMMENSE amount about how to get out the DEMOCRATIC vote. It’s right here:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/9/19/1978865/-Get-Out-the-DEMOCRATIC-VOTE-Here-is-EVERYTHING-You-Need-to-Do-That-LET-S-GO
JPL
@Sab: yup
Sister Golden Bear
@Elizabelle: This warmed my cold, cold heart. Yes I’m a bad person. Fuck ’em.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Morzer: her, and your, “hardball” sounds to me more like fantasy-league Calvinball, a nostalgia for apocryphal, or at least exaggerated, stories about how LBJ passed all the legislation by whipping his dick out in front of legislators, but I’m willing to listen if you want to game out for me what Obama should have done then and/or what Schumer is supposed to do now.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I read it, good move.
PsiFighter37
Interesting that the Jennifer Rubin types and the other Never Trump GOPers have been so silent. Must be hard for them when their ultimate goal is within their sight – but it would require un-burning the bridges they have burnt and sacrificing the integrity they have regained.
opiejeanne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Wow! That’s heartening. I was hesitating about donating to Amy McGrath because someone who seems to know says that her campaign is a lost cause, but the Get Mitch fund says it divvies up the money and sends it to several candidates who have a good chance to win their Senate races.
JoyceH
I just recently received the payment for my sister’s house, so today for the first time I was able to give a campaign (in this instance, Biden/Harris) the maximum donation. I feel like such a fat cat!
Elizabelle
@Sister Golden Bear: And that was from a weekend!
Politico from 2016.
McConnell throws down the gauntlet: No Scalia replacement under Obama
The Senate majority leader’s challenge to the president’s nominating authority appears to be unprecedented.
Of course, Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid and many other Senate Democrats were out immediately with statements saying of course there should be a nomination.
February 13. September 18. Uh huh
[FYI: the now dubious Anthony Kennedy was sworn in on February 18, 1988 — last year of Reagan’s term — after being nominated in November 1987. He was replacing Lewis Powell, who retired. Bork was nominated in July 1987, failed in September, and then there was Douglas Ginsburg, who withdrew in November.]
Another Scott
@Sister Golden Bear: “Anger is an Energy!”
:-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kathleen
@PsiFighter37: Jennifer Rubin is taking the weekend off to honor the Rosh Hashanah.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ve made myself curious: Anybody in Indiana, Wisconsin, PA or FL? Any other close Senate races that Rs won in ’16? Did the Dems campaign on Garland and the USSC?
Quiltingfool
I think Republicans should be very, very careful what they wish for. I remind myself of that when I wish for certain people in charge to leave this world post haste. The reason why is the Law of Unintended Consequences. How any event plays out we can guess at, but we can’t be sure until it does play out. We do what we can, stay strong and fight the good fight.
Percysowner
@JPL: I think Trump will go with Bill Barr. McConnell will have a fit about Barr’s age, but all Trump cares about is himself and he knows Barr will protect him from EVERYTHING. Barr ticks all of Trumps boxes, loyal and doesn’t care about the constitution or the country, plus he’s been “vetted” already when he got the AG appointment and he’s in charge of the DOJ, which can lean on the FBI for any subsequent “vetting”. He’s Trump’s dream guy.
CarolPW
@PsiFighter37: rubin announced before Guinsberg’s death that she was taking rosh Hashanah off (for some reason I am unable to type an upper case r at the moment, sorry). I believe rubin is solid, but have no idea about the rest of the never Trump bunch.
Sab
@Sister Golden Bear: Me too. But she and Scalia were friends and fellow opera buffs. That was one of her strengths. Could be friends with people whose politics appalled her. So they had to at least address her legal arguments in good faith.
That is what we are risking. Intelligent jurists will find some common ground. Unintelligent hacks can’t.
Citizen Alan
Oddly, while I am saddened by the loss of RBG (I was horribly depressed last night, to the point of devouring a pizza and three candy bars and sending my blood sugar into the mid-300’s), I’m not full of either terror or rage. This is because I’ve known for months that if the Democrats took the White House and the Senate and then she died the day after the election, the bastards would ram through another Federalist Society Rapist before the end of the year. So to me, this is just one less thing to feel helplessly anxious about.
The Lodger
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: Go you!
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Me too.
zhena gogolia
@PsiFighter37:
Nichols hasn’t been silent. He’s pounding away at Graham’s hypocrisy. But you’re right about Wilson (last time I looked), Conway (last time I looked), and Rubin (I looked just now and was struck by her silence on this matter).
zhena gogolia
@Kathleen:
Oh, that’s a relief. I was hoping she wasn’t a total hypocrite.
Zelma
@CarolPW:
I’ve started reading the Bulwark, and this morning they were pretty solid about opposing forcing a vote a la Mitch. So that’s one set of anti-trumpets that’s holding.
Geminid
@The Lodger: Burr retires in 2022, so that is another possible NC Senate pickup. Johnson and and 20 other senate republicans face reelection in 2022. Democratic voting historically historically decreased in the off years, but that changed in 2018, and I think 2018 will be the new normal. I’ve never seen Democrats as organized and concentrated on races from state legislator on up as they are now. I don’t see that changing when trump is gone. For Wisconsin Democrats, it will be Trump now, Johnson next. Virginia Republicans used to benefit from Democratic drop off in our odd year state elections. Not any more.
zhena gogolia
@PsiFighter37:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
looks like Jennifer Rubin is still not on Team trump
ETA: the optimism has been all but beaten out of me, but I do hopefully agree that RBG’s icon status, combined with The Beast’s general ham-fisted and clueless misogyny (‘suburban housewives’) might just skew the CW
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
My take is the never-Trumpers are with us still. With the possible exception of Conway. But I never had much faith in him anyway. I just find him amusing sometimes.
Sasha
Point of Fact: The GOP is not trying to install a new Supreme Court justice before an election — they are trying to install a new Supreme Court justice DURING an election. (Early voting has already begun.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
zhena gogolia
Mitch making that announcement before RBG’s toes had even cooled was something I will never forget. I don’t think I’m alone.
Last night it inspired me with nothing but despair. Today’s it’s rage.
Geminid
@zhena gogolia: When I saw McConnel’s quick announcement I had to wonder, is he doing this now because he has the votes and just wants to get the show on the road, or is he doing this because he’s not sure he has the votes and is hoping to steamroll the waverers. Most Senate republicans don’t seem to be saying much publically, but I bet they are on the phone with each other. A lot. Trump wants a new justice because he’s drowning and thinks it will be a life preserver. But for some Republican senators- close to a dozen this year, 22 less retirees in 2022- this judicial nomination could be an anchor. I don’t think it’s a done deal yet.
Medicine Man
I think Jennifer Rubin is right in that RGB’s cruel and untimely demise doesn’t change much of the underlying aspects of the election; more subtext made text.
Geminid
@Geminid: But I repeat myself.
zhena gogolia
@Geminid:
Commenting is weird these days!
Omnes Omnibus
@Medicine Man: We needed to win before she died, and we still need to win.
Medicine Man
@Omnes Omnibus: Right.
topclimber
If it hasn’t already been mentioned, it is not only the endangered 2020 GOP senators who can be pressured.
In 2022, we have a good shot at 5 seats, at least by the numbers:
Pat Toomey (PA) last won by 1.5%.
Ron Jackass (er, Johnson) 3.4%.
Roy Blunt (MO) 2.8%
Marco Rubio 7.7%
Richard Burr is retiring, so an open seat.
Perhaps if the incumbents start hearing about organized pushback two years ahead of the election, they might sweat Mitch’s bullshit tactics.
“We won’t forget what you do today in 2022.”
Bex
@The Golux: Now Trump says he’s going to nominate a woman. My money’s on Ivanka.
A Good Woman
Lincoln Project Statement
Matt McIrvin
@Percysowner: Trump can always nominate himself. That was old geography/history blogger Matt White’s speculative path to the US legally becoming a dictatorship–step 1 was that the sitting President appoints himself as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, serving concurrently.
Terraformer
We went kayaking today enjoying a beautiful, sunny, and cool fall day here in southern Wisconsin. Of course, to get to the lake, our drive was mostly rural – I don’t know, but damn there are a lot of trump signs. I mean, I get that most rural areas favor the orange vulgarian – it’s just, well, sad. All these people value being able to say the quiet parts out loud above most else, with no care or recognition that they’re only useful pawns. It’s still hard to see, though.
Thankfully, we did see a few Biden signs, even a couple along the lakeside. That in itself is cause for hope, and I’m seeing more Biden signs in deep red suburban Waukesha. Maybe we can pull this out here in Wisconsin after all.
O. Felix Culpa
@PsiFighter37: It’s Rosh Hashanah. Jen Rubin announced she wouldn’t be writing for a few days due to the holiday.
ETA: Which Kathleen said in #85. And CarolPW in #89.
Omnes Omnibus
@Terraformer: Were you in the Lake Geneva area? That is going to be Trump country so don’t let it worry you. My family has a cabin in Oneida County (much further north) and there are Trumpers everywhere. Those aren’t the parts of the state we can contest, so I don’t worry about them. Dems are coming for their guns. And those rich bastards who come up in the summer from Madison and Milwaukee are Dems too. Plus racism.
dww44
@Terraformer: I hope you will keep taking the political temp in your part of Wisconsin and pass it along. Down here in my very red state I know, to my sorrow, that every time it looks as though we Dems have a chance to get back in power there’ s something to incentivize the Republican voters. Now it’s the prospect of a solid conservative majority on the SC. They’ll vote for the devil himself to get that.
Origuy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
None of those states have a Senate race this year.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Origuy: yes, I know, that’s why I used the past tense when very specifically referring to the 2016 elections.
206inKY
@topclimber: I don’t think Toomey will slow this down before the election, but his tune might change if Biden crushes it in Pennsylvania. I do think Collins, Murkowski, and Romney are good bets for getting us to 50 both before and after the election. But I have no real confidence in anyone beyond them. Graham rolled the dice on no openings this year with all that footage pretending to have principles; he will vote with Trump regardless but will bleed a little for it in the race with Harrison because that video is just so damning. Grassley and Alexander are possible but unlikely.
If by some miracle we reach 51, I will not be surprised if it’s Richard Burr who gets us there. He hates Trump, has been relentlessly attacked for leading a reasonably legit Senate Intelligence probe, and has one shot at respectability after selling stocks before the crash. They clearly went after Burr and not Loeffler (who did the same thing) as revenge for the probe. Now it is Burr’s turn. I don’t think Mitch counted his votes.
bjacques
O Mighty Balloon Juice Legal Oracle:
There’s an idea I haven’t seen yet (busy weekend, skipped the Thread Of Doom), but a couple of commenters have come close to it.
It depends on retaking the Senate (and keeping the House) and would thus be entirely out of President Biden’s hands, so he wouldn’t be obliged to comment on it.
Kavanaugh almost certainly perjured himself in his nomination hearing and behavior that comes to light in a proper investigation may show evidence of bad character, so why not simply impeach and remove him in January? Likewise, Trump’s nominee will almost certainly lie or omit evidence of wrongdoing in his or her hastily conducted hearing, so pick them off too? 6-3 GOP majority becomes 4-3. If Biden wins, he gets two nominees and, vee-ola, get a 5-4 Democratic majority, and Senator Minority Leader or Private Citizen McConnell can lump it. If Trump wins, revisit the hearings testimonies of Roberts, Alito, Thomas, even Gorsuch, though he seems to have taken the job seriously despite getting Garland’s seat, maybe pick off one or two more. We’re down to a 3-3 deadlock or 3-2 Democratic majority, and a non-negotiable demand for quality, honorable and at least impartial nominees to refill the bench. One of them has to be Garland, if he still wants the job.
No court-packing necessary.
Could that work?