Tuesday, October 09, 2018

Quick Hits: Volume CLXXIV

- I'll be the first to admit that I didn't have high hopes for Sen. Mitch McConnell's tenure as Senate Majority Leader. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by his leadership, particularly over the past 2-1/2 years.

Whether it was standing firm in not allowing President Barack Obama a third Supreme Court pick to his declaration that the leftist mob would not intimidate his colleagues during the Brett Kavanaugh saga, McConnell has stood firm where previous leadership has buckled (oh hai, Bill Frist).

Now that Kavanaugh was confirmed as the latest U.S. Supreme Court justice, how would another vacancy on SCOTUS be handled, particularly if it occurred in the next presidential election year?

"Fox News Sunday" anchor Chris Wallace asked McConnell about his decision to block former President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland because it was a presidential election year, specifically asking if he would do the same thing if a vacancy opened on the high court in 2020.

"When you blocked Merrick Garland's nomination from President Obama, you basically said that we don't do this in a presidential election year and that we wait until the election and then whoever the people choose, they get to pick the Supreme Court nominee. But what you just said now, is it's a question of whether or not the party in control of the Senate is different than the president. The question I guess I'm getting to is, if Donald Trump were to name somebody in the final year of his first term in 2020, are you saying that you would go ahead with that nomination?" Wallace asked.

"I understand your question. And what I told you is what the history of the Senate has been. You have to go back to 1880 to find the last time a vacancy created in a presidential election year on the Supreme Court was confirmed by a Senate of a different party than the president," McConnell responded.

Ummm....that's definitely not a "no."

And you thought the leftist mob was unhinged during the Kavanaugh hearings? Just imagine if McConnell opts to fill a SCOTUS vacancy in 2020. Yikes!


-  In about a 48-hour span earlier this week, we saw actress Alyssa Milano appear on Meet The Press and a former American astronaut being bullied by the Twitter mob into apologizing for quoting Winston Churchill.

In what has become the ultimate evergreen sentiment: We live in very stupid times.


- So Taylor Swift endorsed the Democrat in the Tennessee Senate race. Whoop-de-do. Shake it off, righties (Sorry. I couldn't resist just one).

I've gone on record as saying that I'm not a big fan of the "shut up and sing" retort to any famous musical act declaring his/her political bent. While I don't give their opinions any more credence than that of my neighbors' viewpoints, I certainly welcome the discourse.

Besides, it's not like Swift is going on some sort of national "get out the vote" tour where she's stumping for proggie candidates all across the country. She's merely opining on the U.S. Senate and U.S. House races within the very jurisdiction she's eligible to vote. And while her critique of GOP Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn appeared as if it came directly from Think Progress chanting points, Swift at least conveyed the issues which are most important to her this election cycle.

All that said, I wonder if Tay-Tay had any idea that she endorsed a Kavanaugh supporter for U.S. Senate.

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