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appalachiablue

(41,055 posts)
Sat Oct 3, 2020, 06:16 PM Oct 2020

'Not Now: Trump & McConnell Must Halt Their Dangerous Rush To Ram Thru A Nominee,' Russ Feingold

'Not Now: Trump & McConnell Must Halt Their Dangerous Rush to Ram Through a Nominee,' Daily Kos, Russ Feingold, 10/3/20.



Any system can only bear so much, whether it is a bridge overloaded with heavy trucks or our government in a time of crisis. President Trump’s hospitalization for COVID-19 amid news that multiple members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have been infected by or exposed to the virus takes our government to a point where girders bend and cables snap. As we reel under the blows of a pandemic and a quasi-depression, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham must call a halt to their hasty and illegitimate effort to install Judge Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court. Their failure to do so would present a clear and present danger to the health and wellbeing of the American people.

As a former Senator who served for 16 years on the Judiciary Committee, I know Supreme Court confirmation hearings are all-consuming. The Senate, never the nimblest of entities, grinds to a halt, making progress on legislation extremely difficult. To conduct a confirmation process in circumstances in which in-person hearings would be difficult, dangerous, or more likely, impossible and then seat a nominee would delegitimize the Court in the eyes of many Americans.

COVID-19 has killed almost 210,000 Americans, sickened an estimated seven million more, and caused widespread economic dislocation and suffering. People are grieving, sick and frightened. Instead of this nomination, the Senate majority should focus on economic relief legislation and aid to millions of Americans who have lost their jobs or whose small business are on the brink of collapse as a result of the pandemic. They could even negotiate in good faith on legislation to improve health care for all as a deadly disease stalks the land. But they choose not to.

So what are they doing? Currently the Senate calendar and the mental energy of every Senator are monopolized by the McConnell-Graham plan to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court with a nominee whose views are far out the mainstream on many issues. The Right – from the White House to big business to the grassroots opponents of reproductive freedom and gun regulation – have their eyes on the prize of locking down the Court for a generation with a hard-right supermajority. They can all count, and they know that 6-3 is better for them than 5-4...

More, https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/10/3/1983121/-Not-Now-Trump-and-McConnell-Must-Halt-Their-Dangerous-Rush-to-Ram-Through-a-Nominee



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russ_Feingold

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'Not Now: Trump & McConnell Must Halt Their Dangerous Rush To Ram Thru A Nominee,' Russ Feingold (Original Post) appalachiablue Oct 2020 OP
The confirmation hearing will be rubber stamped even more quickly than the trial of impeachment. Marcuse Oct 2020 #1
'full steam ahead' as Mitch said yesterday; even so appalachiablue Oct 2020 #2
Such a good man. I miss him in the Senate. BeckyDem Oct 2020 #3
Sorry Russ... orwell Oct 2020 #4
THat seat was stolen, as those of us following election integrity at that time all know. Amaryllis Oct 2020 #5
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