After reading this
editorial, please express your own thoughts. At
the bottom, please click on the word "Comments" below the copyright and
type your remarks in the
box. When finished, please
click on the word "Publish." Please
also share a link to this
column with others in your e-mail directory and on social media.
With Donald Trump scheduled tonight...to announce his nominee to replace the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia...who died in February 2016...I'm giving a standing ovation and a big pat on the back to Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon...who says he will filibuster any nominee to the Court unless Trump chooses Merrick Garland...the jurist who former President Barack Obama had selected last year, but who the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate wouldn't even give the courtesy of a hearing.
Senator Merkley told Politico - on Monday, January 30th, 2017..."This is a stolen seat. This is the first time a Senate majority has stolen a seat. We will use every lever in our power to stop this." Therefore...if Trump doesn't tap Garland for the vacancy on the Supreme Court - and there's a snowball's chance in hell that he will - once Senator Merkley sticks to his guns...Republicans will need 60 votes for Trump's choice to be confirmed...which will never happen. As for changing historical Senate rules to allow for a simple majority of only 51 votes - the so-called "nuclear option" - in order to confirm a Supreme Court Justice...will never happen either.
With all the hoopla and hullabaloo going on throughout the United States - especially in Washington, DC - since Inauguration Day...then I can only imagine Donald Trump...standing in the middle of The Oval Office...stomping his feet...shaking his head...and waving his hands as he screams..."No, no, no." Why aren't people doing what I tell them?"
Trump is a man who must be enraged...by what he might be calling...a lack of obedience by certain people in his own Administration...by members of Congress... and by the vast majority of the American public. My answer to that would be...too bad, Donald. Now you and your Republican cronies can get a taste of the GOP's own medicine...for the way they treated President Obama. It's, therefore, quite possible - as I have written in past columns - that the United States Supreme Court will remain a bench of eight...for the next four years...or, unless the Democrats gain control of the Senate after the 2018 mid-term elections...and if Trump is then willing to play ball. Otherwise...it just may be...strike 3 and you're out...with no full team of players...on the highest court in our land.
And that's The Controversy for today.
I'm Gary B. Duglin.
"We'll talk again."
The Controversy is a publication of
GBD Productions. Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B.
Duglin.
Now, please express your personal
opinions by following the instructions above. And thank you for reading The
Controversy.
Copyright 2017 Gary B. Duglin and
TheControversy.net. All Rights
Reserved.
Judge Gorsuch is an extremely qualified Judge and will make a Great Associate Justice to the Supreme Court. Senator Merkley is a disgrace to the Senate and proves all the Democrats want to do is to be disrupters, they are slowing approval of Cabinet Secretaries knowing they can’t stop them just to cause problems and to blame President Trump if anything goes wrong. Their actions boarder on un-American! As for Merrick Garland the US Senate did their job, which is advise and consent, President Obama and the left didn’t like the advice portion which was we advise you not to appoint anyone at this time. All within their rights under the US Constitution and past history. If the Democrats attempt to filibuster Judge Gorsuch, I believe the Senator McConnell will use the same option Harry Reid used and change the Senate rules to 51 votes. In my opinion Judge Gorsuch will be Justice Gorsuch by May 1, 2017. When you said “ Republican cronies can get a taste of the GOP's own medicine...for the way they treated President Obama” check your facts the GOP did not filibuster Justice Sonia Sotomayor or Justice Elena Kagan two people that conservatives would never had wanted on the Bench. Your statements prove your hate for President Trump, the Conservatives and in my opinion the rule of law. It was President Obama that stated “Elections have consequences, and at the end of the day, I won.” Well now President Trump won so get used to it and stop crying, work with the President, the House and the Senate and let’s get the job done for the American people! All the American people, not just the left that Obama and the Democrats worked for over the last 8 years.
ReplyDelete1) Judge Gorsuch may be "extremely qualified" in your eyes...and in the eyes of other conservatives, but he is not somone who should be serving on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Delete2) Senator Merkley is first-rate and deserves much applause for his words.
3) Democrats are not "disrupters." Democrats are responding in the same fashion as the Republicans did all throughout 8 years of President Obama's two terms.
4) Merrick Garland was a perfect nominee and should have been easily confirmed for the Supreme Court. But the nasty Republicans in the Senate - and mainly Mitch McConnell - would not even give Garland the courtesy of a hearing. Talk about un-American? McConnell and the GOP Senators were un-American in that regard.
5) In reality, if Judge Gorsuch does get confirmed, it really won't change much because he would replace Antonin Scalia, a conservative. So, as in the past, decisions will be made based on 4 liberals, 4 conservatives and 1 moderate who is a swing vote - going one way for some issues and one way for others. That is why there have been so many 5 to 4 decisions; sometimes favoring liberals and sometimes favoring conservatives. It will be the next vacancy where Democrats need to be concerned. But hopefully, no Justice will retire or die before January 2019 when I am confident that the Senate (and probably the House) will be returned to the Democrats after the November 2018 mid-term elections.
6) As for the "nuclear option" - if the Republicans are able to use it, it might come back to bite them in the ass in the future.
7) My comment about Republicans getting a taste of the GOP's own medicine goes a lot further than just the Supreme Court. Republicans, throughout President Obama's two terms, were disgraceful towards Mr. Obama...about a whole hell of a lot. This is payback time.
8) Once again, you and other Republicans like you want to continue to use the "hate" word. That is why I wrote in an earlier column this week - THE WHITE HOUSE OF HATE. I should have titled it...THE WHITE HOUSE AND REPUBLICAN-CONTROLLED CONGRESS OF HATE.
9) Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress will NOT "get the job done for the American people." They may get what YOU and other conservatives want done...but certainly NOT what I and other liberal progressives want done.
10) President Obama did serve ALL the American people...and he was outstanding in that effort. But for you to say..."All the American people, not just the left that Obama and the Democrats worked for over the last 8 years"...is way off base...and certainly not true. President Obama worked for everyone. Trump and the Republicans in Congress will work for the conservatives...only...and that's it.
GBD
1)You don’t think any Conservative should be on the High Court. Why? The standard rule has always been is he qualified, yes he is.
ReplyDelete2) Senator Merkley should not be applauded; he rejected a nominee before knowing who it was.
3)Once again one of your lies, there wasn’t a filibuster on Justice Sonia Sotomayor or Justice Elena Kagan, two people in my thinking and in most Republican’s thinking don’t belong on the Supreme Court. The democrats are disrupters and mean spirited. They are showing they care more about party then they do about America.
4) They were following the “Biden Rule”. What is un-American is calling Patriotic American Senators un-American.
5) Judge Gorsuch will get confirmed and so will the next one; most likely Justice Kennedy will retire at the end of this term. After that hopefully Ginsburg she’s almost 84 and should retire.
6) Harry Reid used it.
7) Once again you lie; everything the GOP did was because they and I truly believe his policies were bad for America. The GOP was looking out for America and Americans. The left just has hate in their hearts and don’t care who it hurts, as you said “this is payback time”, talk about un-American!
8) I stand by my words the Left hates our President and some must hate America for the way they have been acting since November 8th.
9) The left would never have gotten anything done for the conservative Americans, yes conservatives are American! Maybe if the left was willing to compromise maybe things could get done for all Americans.
10) President Obama only worked for his base the other 50% of the country he didn’t give a damn about. All he cared about was how to get more money (taxes) out of their pockets. Most of President Trump’s plans are good for all Americans! Lower taxes, jobs, a wall and a safer country!
The response to the above reader's comments will be in three parts.
DeletePART ONE OF THREE
1) To be honest...no. In a perfect world, there would be nothing but liberals on the U.S. Supreme Court. I would never want a conservative Justice who is going to want to overturn Roe vs. Wade, marriage equality, the Affordable Care Act and other laws that America must remain on the books.
2) Kudos and much applause to Senator Merkley. It didn't matter who Donald Trump's nominee was going to be. The fact that the Republicans denied President Obama's nominee - Merrick Garland - the courtesy of a hearing...is reason enough to support Senator Merkley's words.
3) It amazes me that you call me a liar when you have no clue what you're talking about. Here are the facts regarding President Obama's nomination of Justice Elena Kagan. Wikipedia proves that the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to endorse Kagan by a vote of 13 to 6 with Republican Lindsey Graham supporting Kagan too. As for a possible filibuster, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl stated, "The filibuster should be relegated to extreme circumstances...and I don't think Elena Kagan represents that." Meanwhile, in addition to support by Lindsey Graham, Republican Senators Susan Collins, Judd Gregg, Richard Lugar and Olympia Snowe all were in favor of Elena Kagan sitting on the bench of the U.S. Supreme Court. As for President Obama's nomination of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, many Republicans supported her nomination and voted for her...including Lamar Alexander, Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, Richard Lugar, Mel Martinez and Olympia Snow, among many others. Senator Snowe commented about President Obama's nomination of Sotomayor..."I commend President Obama for nominating a well-qualified woman, as I urged him to do during a one-on-one meeting on a variety of issues in the Oval Office earlier this month." Once again, people like you are haters.
And you prove it when you make a statement like "The Democrats are disrupters and mean spirited. They are showing they care more about party then they do about America."
GBD
END OF PART ONE OF THREE
PART TWO OF THREE
Delete4) First of all...there is no official "Biden Rule." And even if you want to use comments made by former Vice President Joe Biden when he was Senator Biden - in 1992 - his speech included the following..."The tradition against acting on Supreme Court nominations in a Presidential year is particularly strong when the vacancy occurs in the summer or fall of that election season. Thus, while a few Justices have been confirmed in the summer or fall of a Presidential election season, such confirmations are rare — only five times in our history have summer or fall confirmations been granted, with the latest — the latest — being the August 1846 confirmation of Justice Robert Grier. In fact, no Justice has ever been confirmed in September or October of an election year — the sort of timing which has become standard in the modern confirmation process. Indeed, in American history, the only attempt to push through a September or October confirmation was the failed campaign to approve Abe Fortas’ nomination in 1968. I cannot believe anyone would want to repeat that experience in today’s climate." Note the amount of times above that then-Senator Biden mentioned "summer or fall." The fact of the matter is - and I'm not going to include his entire speech here, but Mr. Biden noted "summer" 16 times during that speech. President Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland was in February. I don't know what calendar you use, but the last time I looked, February is in the winter. February is the second month of the year. February is nowhere near the summer or fall. Furthermore, Mr. Biden's suggestion only pertained to an incumbent President who was running for re-election. And President Obama was obviously not able to run for a third term and was, therefore, not an incumbent President. The so-called, "Biden Rule" is a bunch of garbage when it comes to Merrick Garland. And certainly...by any stretch of the imagination...the so-called, "Biden Rule"...would never apply to a new President in the first 100 days of his Presidency. So you are wrong, wrong, wrong. And McConnell and his cronies are "un-American" by lying.
5) Obviously you didn't read my response carefully so let me repeat it. "In reality, if Judge Gorsuch does get confirmed, it really won't change much because he would replace Antonin Scalia, a conservative. So, as in the past, decisions will be made based on 4 liberals, 4 conservatives and 1 moderate who is a swing vote - going one way for some issues and one way for others. That is why there have been so many 5 to 4 decisions; sometimes favoring liberals and sometimes favoring conservatives. It will be the next vacancy where Democrats need to be concerned. But hopefully, no Justice will retire or die before January 2019 when I am confident that the Senate (and probably the House) will be returned to the Democrats after the November 2018 mid-term elections." This is why the Democrats might not try to filibuster because it's really not going to make much of a difference this time. However, should Kennedy or any other conservative Justice retire (or die) in the next four years, expect the Democrats to filibuster.
GBD
END OF PART TWO OF THREE
PART THREE OF THREE
Delete6) Yes, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did use the "nuclear option" in 2013...and current Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer regrets that decision. Schumer recently told CNN...""I argued against it at the time. I said both for Supreme Court and in Cabinet should be 60 because on such important positions there should be some degree of bipartisanship." The "nuclear option" should not ever be used.
7) To use one of President Ronald Reagan's favorite phrases..."There you go again." You do like calling me - and probably every liberal progressive Democrat...a liar. I don't lie. The facts are that everything President Obama and the Democrats in Congress wanted to do were excellent for America. The policies were necessary. I wish I knew who you were so I could put a name and a face to the despicable, disgraceful and deplorable comments that you make. I truly, truly dislike having to say the following, but for you to say that "The left has hate in their hearts and don't care who it hurts"...you are a nasty scumbag. The fact of the matter is that Republicans treated President Obama horrendously and the GOP deserves nothing now.
8) I repeat what I said in Number 7 above. Your remarks are that of a scumbag. YOU ARE A HATER.
9) The "left" is always willing to compromise. It is the "right"...that is wrong...because Republicans will not compromise. The GOP used to, but not anymore.
10) President Obama worked for every single American. You keep proving to me your hatred. For you to say that President Obama didn't "give a damn about 50 percent of the country" is contemptible and reprehensible. Taxes must be raised for the rich...in order to help the middle-class and the poor. Donald Trump is going to raise taxes on the middle-class and the poor...while he lowers taxes on the rich. He will never build a wall. Mexico will not pay for it and Congress will never approve the funding. THERE WILL BE NO WALL...and there shouldn't be one. Trump is already becoming one of the worst people to occupy The White House. If you read my February 2nd, 2017 column...you'll find out what I...really think.
I AM DONE TALKING WITH YOU.
GBD
END OF PART THREE OF THREE