The coming SCOTUS fight: those racist and sexist Republicans, that noble Biden
The Democrats are looking forward to confirming Biden’s pick for SCOTUS Justice Breyer’s successor. This person is promised to be a black woman, according to Biden, and so one of the reasons the Democrats are so happy is that they believe the optics of the GOP opposing the nomination of a black woman to SCOTUS will help them in the midterms.
Of course, they’re conveniently forgetting a few things (and/or guessing the public has forgotten them and the press will not mention them), such as Joe Biden’s history during the Clarence Thomas hearings. Granted, Thomas is a black man, but Biden has managed the feat of being criticized by the right for opposing the Thomas nomination and by the left for his treatment during the hearings of Anita Hill, who is a black woman.
More recently, Biden fought the nomination of a black conservative woman, Janice Rogers Brown, to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. That was during George W. Bush’s presidency, and Biden and the other Democrats invoked the sacredness of the filibuster to do it. Now the Democrats hate the filibuster as a racist “Jim Crow” measure – until the next time they need it.
Although Brown was eventually confirmed, it was no thanks to Joe Biden, who voted against her confirmation.
The reason Biden and the Democrats tried to block Brown was that they wanted to prevent Bush from nominating the first black woman. The same rationale was behind their successful obstruction of Miguel Estrada, who could have been the first Latino even though he was highly qualified, as was Brown. The DC Circuit was correctly seen as the first step to the Supreme Court.
Unless Biden’s pick is an absolute loon, I don’t know why the GOP would bother with more than token resistance. They should vote against the nominee on general principle, but any questioning or speechifying should be 100% about highlighting any and all Biden/Democrat hypocrisy and failures.
Of course, picking an absolute loon would fit right in with Biden’s track record.
But it is pretty funny to see some NeverTrumpers and moderate white Democrats visibly cringe at the blatant sexism and racism behind Biden’s promise to only nominate a black woman.
Mike
I’m fully expecting Biden to nominate a loon. Mostly because he’s just an asshole, but also because he probably believes (perhaps foolishly or perhaps not) that he can make the Republicans look like mean ol’racists for daring to oppose the historic confirmation of the first black woman to the highest court. In short, I don’t expect Biden to ever do the sensible, correct thing. I don’t expect him ever to be reasonable or considerate or kind or intelligent. I’ve never known him to be.
The Democrat-nominated SC justices NEVER vote against the party line, no matter how at odds with the Constitution they have to be. OTOH, Republicans appoint those who tend to uphold the law, even at the expense of party approval! THIS IS THE ISSUE. It is easily mathematically demonstrable, and this is the question Republicans should put in front of the American people: “Why do Democrats ignore the Constitution to further their party’s goals?”
In other words, why do Democrat justices ignore their duty? Make THAT the issue, instead of playing the Democrats’ race/gender games! Give Americans an adult issue to care about, and who knows, maybe they’ll care about it!!
I also expect Biden to nominate a loon. He, or the people around him, have shown no moderation up til now, despite their razor thin majorities in Congress. It’s hard to see why they would change now.
Hey, the Bidens are bipartisan in one respect: the species of the WH pets. “The White House has a new resident. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden have officially welcomed a cat to their family in Washington D.C., the first lady announced Friday. Her name is Willow, and she’s a 2-year-old, green-eyed, gray and white farm cat from Pennsylvania, according to the Associated Press.
‘Willow is settling into the White House with her favorite toys, treats, and plenty of room to smell and explore,’ said Michael LaRosa, the first lady’s spokesperson. . . . Willow joins Commander, a German shepherd puppy Joe Biden introduced in December. The Bidens had two other German shepherds, Champ and Major, at the White House before Commander, but Major was sent back to Delaware after a pair of biting incidents.”
Photos of Willow at the link: https://www.mlive.com/news/2022/01/joe-biden-first-lady-welcome-cat-named-willow-to-white-house-see-photos.html
Too bad she’s a gray female rather than a black one, or she might be in line for a federal judgeship.
May Willow have a better life than Buddy “photo OP” Clinton.
The Bidens should adopt a weasel as a WH pet, in order to provide diversity and equity for marginalized mammals.
Dwaz– we should also hope that Willow fares better than Socks, who was exploited for photo ops and a children’s book while the Clintons were in the WH, but was given away immediately when they moved out. They gave Socks to Betty Currie, Clinton’s secretary. Currie and her husband took care of Socks until his death from cancer in 2009 (he was almost 20 years old at the time).
Anyway, Willow is now the First Cat of the United States or FCOTUS.
“Give Americans an adult issue to care about, and who knows, maybe they’ll care about it!!”
Or maybe they won’t… oh, well.
The problem is whoever they nominate will be called a moderate. However, they called Merrick Garland a moderate and from the way he has preformed as AG I see very little sign of moderation.
Dwaz– we should also hope that Willow fares better than Socks, who was exploited for photo ops and a children’s book while the Clintons were in the WH, but was given away immediately when they moved out. They gave Socks to Betty Currie, Clinton’s secretary. Currie and her husband took care of Socks until his death from cancer in 2009 (he was almost 20 years old at the time).
I’ll wager Socks was never cared for by any of the Clintons, or Chelsea would have taken her. Another task for some domestic employee of the Governor’s Mansion or the White House, who may have actually been fond of him.
Stop and ask yourself with whom Bill Clinton has an actual personal bond which is not episodic and superficial and which is not instrumental and which is not a simulacrum. Brother Roger, perhaps; Chelsea, perhaps; his late mother back in the day. Now ask about Hellary. Her mother, perhaps (and, derived from that, her brothers). Susan Thomases perhaps. Huma Abedin, perhaps. Perhaps Chelsea, though Huma Abedin seems like a substitute daughter.
I’m not sure that the GOP will attempt to block any Biden nominee, no matter how radical. They lack the loyalty to the Constitution, which is a motivational prerequisite to working at overcoming the predictable smears of racism. So I suspect they’ll see opposition as an exercise in futility.
Though that is not the case. The democrat’s cynical hypocrisy can be exposed. Every Republican questioner should start by stating they’ll happily vote for a qualified black woman nominee. Continued with… “which BTW was demonstrated when Pres. Bush nominated Janice Rogers Brown, a black woman to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Who despite Senator Biden and his fellow democrat’s filibustering opposition was ratified”.
Then turn to the Biden nominee’s qualifications and record.
If unqualified, boldly but respectfully state so with… “Madam, for this office I fear you need more seasoning, unfortunately your nomination is premature.”
Then close with, “President Biden, please send us a qualified black woman nominee because we agree that it is past time for one. Let’s make this vote unanimous!”
If every Republican Senator started off with exactly those words in a unified message, it would eat away at the media’s characterization of the republican objections as racially motivated.
And when the media still portrays republican objections as racist, respond by repeating Biden and the democrat’s racist record with black and latino justice nominees advanced by the GOP. Then ask why the media is covering up those facts.
Rhetorical verbal judo. The material is there to work with, it’s the will to use it that’s lacking.
I’ve read that Kamala will be the nominee and if she makes it, Nancy Pelosi would become VP and after Biden retires or is removed, she will become our President. I hope that’s just wild speculation.
Here’s an interesting take from the Federalist:
“The Senate of 2022 is tied, with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, which presents Republicans with an interesting procedural option: denying a quorum in the Senate Judiciary Committee, thus preventing the nomination from being reported out of committee and placed on the calendar, and ultimately moved to the Senate floor.“
https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/28/how-this-senate-rule-could-stop-democrats-from-confirming-bidens-scotus-nominee/
I watched the documentary about Clarence Thomas, Created Equal. The footage of Joe Biden dispels any notion that he’s warm, fuzzy, and harmless.
And so you see,… if you want to Rule, *you* must be the Moral Arbiter. If you permit some nebulous others to define ‘Morality’ — e.g. Universalism, Anti-Racism, yadda yadda… Well… strike me dead with a feather, it’ll always happen to turn out that You are a Very Bad and Terrible Person. Strange, that.
“Then close with, “President Biden, please send us a qualified black woman nominee because we agree that it is past time for one. ”
I disagree. It’s time to cancel Affirmative Action and stop appeasing “blackmailers.”
@ Eva Marie > “Here’s an interesting take from the Federalist:…denying a quorum in the Senate Judiciary Committee, thus preventing the nomination from being reported out of committee…”
If this is the case, then I expect the Democrats to immediately declare the Senate rule about quorums to be fascist, racist, and sexist, and attempt to get it discarded, or “temporarily” set aside.
The response of all Republicans should be just like this Virginian.
https://notthebee.com/article/this-is-how-we-should-approach-all-the-crt-folx-when-they-call-us-racists-bigots-and-homophobes
It’s worth clicking on the Tweet to watch the short video.
We need more people like this.
If Willow is actually a farm cat, there’ll be another Biden pet decamping to Delaware soon enough.
Biden’s track record on appointments obviously isn’t encouraging. Though I expect that the admin will be aggressively lobbied by professional networks of black women and their allies in government and the legal sphere. They’re going to want to see a credible and effective nominee – certainly a Liberal one, but not some woke carnival barker. And they are a well established presence in DC, that isn’t going to be intimidated by the hysterics of white Progressives. So potentially a moderating force.
AesopFan,
That is a tremendous speech! Thank you for making me aware. I hope it is shared far and wide and all Republican legislators memorize it and repeat it often, until the junior high ad hominem stops.
I love his stress of the word “narrative” and that he makes clear a personal attack on a legislative representative is a personal attack on the constituents that put that legislator in office. And his relating it to the schools and Youngkin’s election is hard to refute. Very well stated!
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