Places, People! Places! The Kabuki Theater is About to Begin!
So Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has announced that he’s going to retire now, while the Democratic party still has a virtual stranglehold on the Senate (as opposed to waiting and pushing the nomination battle past the November elections, where the Democrats are likely to get crushed). This, of course, will spawn a mind-numbing blizzard of news stories and blog posts about short-lists and filibuster threats, none of which really matter.
This is a done deal, folks. There won’t be any real discussion about the Constitution or a Supreme Court Justice’s role in keeping our nation firmly locked into the highest law of our land. Heck, there won’t be any real debate happening at all except perhaps on the fringes of the blogosphere.
Here’s how the story of Stevens’ replacement is going to go down.
- Various media outlets will portray Justice Stevens as the very middle of the middle of the road, a paragon of judicial restraint and a fierce voice of independence.
- President Obama will pinky-swear with the American people that he’s going to nominate a serious and experienced independent thinker who will play things right down the very middle of the middle of the road just like Justice Stevens. Also, his nominee will care about us. A lot.
- President Obama will nominate someone who is at least as hard-left as Stevens, who thinks the law exists to help “the common man” (whoever the heck that is), and who can check off several boxes on the Aggrieved Interest Group Checklist.
- The Republicans will threaten to filibuster. The Democrats will say their threat is the Worst Outrage in the History of Outrages. Republicans will point to the unprecedented filibusters Democrats used during the Bush administration. Democrats will point to the nominees blocked during the Clinton administration. Republicans will cave.
- President Obama’s nominee will be confirmed with more Republican votes than Justices Roberts or Alito got.
Of course this whole process would work out a lot better for the country if everyone involved paid attention to Jen Rubin’s sage observation.
Despite liberals’ best efforts to convince the public that the Constitution is “living,” the public doesn’t think judges should just make stuff up. And it tends to dislike the ends — gun control, abortion on demand, racial preferences — that liberal justices reach.
Don’t hold your breath, though. Already the kabuki has begun.
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Category: The Good Old US of A
You nailed it.
This is exactly how it's going down.
Sigh…
I simply do not believe the WH's Hillary denial, and will be genuinely surprised if she doesn't call in her markers and take the nomination and the seat.
That is, if she has any inkling of remaining a DC figure beyond this administration.
Democratic party still has a virtual stranglehold on the Senate
So… they have more elected members = stranglehold?
I bet that if the GOP does win the Senate in November you'd describe it a bit differently.
[...] Ta-Ra-Kabuki-Ay! 13 April 2010 @ 20:19 by bobbelvedere Methinks my friend Jimmie Bise, owner of The Sundries Shack, has been attending psychic classes and has graduated at the top of his class. He’s published his predictions for how the whole process to select, nominate, and confirm a replacement for Justice John Paul Stevens on The Supreme Court will proceed and, having followed such affairs closely since The Reagan Years, I would bet the house on his prediction. [...]