* If the Democratic Party sticks together, it will be able to confirm President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee sans any GOPster votes. She could become the first person elevated to the court by a vice presidential tie-breaking vote. A lot of history could be made.
It wasn’t always this problematic. Recall that retiring Justice Stephen G. Breyer, a member of the court’s liberal wing, was appointed in 1994 by President Bill Clinton, and the confirmation vote was a one-sided 87-to-9. Hell, hard-core conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, was confirmed in a shutout: 98-to-0. That was then.
Whatever happened to consensus? Right now the Dems are hoping for a couple of ideological defections. Best chance: Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who was the only Republican to oppose Justice Brett Kavanaugh. A realistic, best-case scenario: Collins, Murkowski and Sen. Lindsey Graham cross the politically partisan aisle-gulf. All three backed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a front-runner to succeed Justice Breyer, for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
* “The worst thing you can do in American politics is to give people something and then take it away. The failure to pass the Build Back Better has a negative effect on a lot of families.”–Democratic strategist Brad Bannon, alluding to the child tax credit benefit that lapsed last month.
* “You lie!” Remember that? It’s when South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Wilson shouted that during President Barack Obama’s address of a joint session of Congress in 2009. Little did we know that it would get so much worse than even that.
* “Democrats generally respect the notion that a more democratic nation is a good thing … (and don’t seek) to rig the rules in their favor. That’s why there was no Jan. 6, 2017, insurrection to stop Donald Trump from taking office.”–Perry Bacon, WaPo.