Steve Benen: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg believes her nomination would probably be defeated if it came up today. She’s correct:
Ginsburg said that to practice for her Senate confirmation hearings, White House staffers in mock hearings grilled her on her work for the ACLU. During those mock hearings she told them: “There’s nothing you can do to get me to bad mouth the ACLU.”
Such grilling, though, did not happen, she said. She was confirmed 96-3. “Today, my ACLU connection would probably disqualify me,” she said.
Ginsburg was the former director of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, which would seem to make her a left-wing radical in the eyes of the Republican Party.
And yet, in 1993, Ginsburg was confirmed by the Senate on a 96-to-3 vote. That’s not a typo …. Note that plenty of Republican senators whose names will sound familiar - Chuck Grassley, Kay Bailey Hutchison, John McCain, Mitch McConnell - all voted for her nomination. (Then note that in 2010, Elena Kagan confirmed on a 63-to-37 vote - and Grassley, Hutchison, McCain, and McConnell all voted against her.)
….The political center of gravity has moved rather dramatically in a very short period of time.
Full post here - more at Think Progress
White House.gov
This country will only move forward when people start being honest about what the Republicans’ problems with this President really is; And when people start holding those in the media accountable for telling the truth and stop providing cover for the 2008-2016 version of the KKK that currently exists in congress.
Amen Hope, you spoke a mouth full.
Agree, hopefruit- you’ve named it for what it is. Thank you.
I love the truth. Thanks hopefruit2.
Thanks Hopefruit - so true.
“The political center of gravity has moved rather dramatically in a very short period of time.” Now there’s a statement you can sink your teeth into. It only took Grassley 15 years to find that teat he liked to talk about. Maybe the others were nursing on that same pig. Anyway we know the sow they’re nursing from and it is a big, nasty, and ill-tempered hog. It’s been lying in the mud for several hundred years.
Scalia was confirmed 98-0, Kennedy was confirmed 97-0.
Bush nominees received more pushback - Roberts got a 78-22 vote and Alito was confirmed 58-42
(Thomas was 52-48 but we all know those circumstances)
The manifestation of division begins…..very interesting, also very upsetting.
Thank you for your truthful post.
Also worth noting Grassley and McCain were up for re-election and worried about getting teabagged, and KBH was running for Texas Gov.
What ultimately is to blame though is redistricting in 2000 and more in 2010 - they’re making redder and bluer districts which allows hyper-partisans to be elected. We know that in primaries the activist base turns out and they’re usually more partisan, so the hyper-partisan wins their pirmary and then cruises to election because they’re in a +6 or greater district. These folks have zero incentive to compromise, because if they do they’ll be primaried out but a purer candidate.
Before you never primaried an incumbent, but the teabaggers do and will, what puts the fear of God in their deep red representatives. IN the past once elected, you’d drift to the middle over time, as the years went on for the most part as you cut deals and worked with the other side.
So what’s McCain’s excuse now since he’s not up for re-election for 6years and probably won’t be running again…
What’s the excuse for John Kyl who’s retiring but still isn’t going to do the right thing…
How times have changed. Now we have hyper-partisans on both sides of the aisle, who would sell their mom if it meant they could keep their congressional seat.