As Katie wrote yesterday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) tried to launch another attempt to stop the hearings on the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Left has viewed his nomination as the harbinger of the apocalypse. The Democrats have vowed to block him, except that they can’t. The Republicans have the votes on the Judiciary Committee and the Senate to confirm Kavanaugh. The soporific ground game against the Kavanaugh nomination seems to suggest the Left already know that, but the die-hard resist crew of the Democratic Party want a full-court press. They want a fight. They sort of got that on day one of the hearings, where Senate Democrats and protesters created chaos just minutes after Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley started the hearing. Oh, andit was all coordinated the weekend prior. Still, the Left is pretty much saying that Schumer’s playbooks sucks (via Politico):
Thirteen liberal groups have signed on to a letter, delivered Wednesday morning, that pans the minority leader’s strategy of stopping President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court. They say that “the Democratic Party’s progressive base expects nothing less than all-out resistance to Trump’s dangerous agenda,” and question whether Schumer is delivering it.
But Schumer is grappling with multiple challenges: a base that wants him to stop Kavanaugh even though Republicans can confirm him without Democratic help, as well as a brutal midterm map and vulnerable incumbents who are under pressure to support Trump’s pick. Senate Democrats have largely united behind Schumer’s strategy of demanding documents and disrupting the Judiciary Committee’s hearing. But liberal groups say it’s not enough.
“Your job as Senate Democratic leader is to lead your caucus in complete opposition to Trump’s attempted Supreme Court takeover and to defend everyone threatened by a Trump Supreme Court,” the letter reads. “But unbelievably, nearly two dozen Democrats have still not come out against Kavanaugh. ... That is not the leadership we need.”
The Hill has more, and to their credit, they did note that Democrats couldn’t really do much to stop this nomination. Kavanaugh is going to be confirmed whether the Left likes it or not. They lost the 2016 election, and elections have consequences:
Activists are fuming as Democrats remain publicly fractured on opposing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and they blame the New York Democrat who they worry is more focused on the November midterm elections.
Frustrations have been simmering for weeks but are now spilling out into the open as Kavanaugh faces days of intense questioning by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Thirteen outside groups panned Schumer’s Supreme Court strategy, warning that they believe he is “failing.”
“The Democratic Party’s progressive base expects nothing less than all-out resistance to Trump’s dangerous agenda,” the groups wrote in a Wednesday letter to Schumer. “They know that anything less than 49 Democratic votes against Kavanaugh would be a massive failure of your leadership.”
Republicans hold 51 seats, meaning Democrats can’t block Kavanaugh on their own. But Schumer is nevertheless under intense pressure from progressives to run a full-scale war against Trump’s nominee, with outside groups saying that anything less would normalize an administration that has been plagued by legal scandals.
Neil Sroka — a spokesman for Democracy for America, which signed the letter — said Democrats have spent months playing “patty-cake” with Kavanaugh’s nomination, and outside groups are questioning “what the hell Chuck Schumer thinks he’s doing.”
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The fact that Sen. Cory Booker threw a hissy fit to release documents relating to Kavanaugh and racial profiling only to show that the judge was against the practice after the 9/11 terror attacks says it all—the Democrats have nothing to stop this man from becoming the next associate justice on the Court. Is Schumer’s job leading Senate Democrats in trouble? No—hell no, he’s as safe as ever. For the far left, in this fight, it must suck…to suck. Kavanaugh is going to be confirmed, giving conservatives a solid 5-4 majority—and Schumer is going to be leader for his party in the Senate for years to come:
There’s a lot riding on Brett Kavanaugh’s likely confirmation to the Supreme Court. Here’s one thing that isn’t: Chuck Schumer’s job.
Despite some heated criticism from the Democratic base that he’s “failing” the party in his efforts to stop Kavanaugh, Schumer’s role as Democratic leader is safe for the next Congress, according to interviews with nearly a dozen Democratic senators.
Schumer helped recruit many sitting senators, giving him a reserve of political capital when the 67-year-old took over for Harry Reid in 2017 as Donald Trump became president. Liberals and moderates in his caucus are well aware of Schumer’s tough lot navigating Trump’s Washington, and they've given him room to maneuver, including in the fight over a Supreme Court nomination he’s powerless to stop on his own.
Liberal critics say Schumer is giving Kavanaugh a pass, and Republicans are trying to hitch vulnerable red-state Democrats to the New Yorker. But no matter: Schumer is expected to have broad support heading into 2019. Even a loss of Senate seats this fall is unlikely to significantly shake Schumer’s level of support.
In the meantime, if there was an extra level for losers in this SCOTUS fight, it’s the red state Democrats, who have a no-win situation on their hands. Voters in their respective states want Kavanaugh confirmed, and in more than a couple—the vote could be a make or break moment. Re-election will be a shoo-in for someone like Joe Manchin, but even with re-election sewn up, will they risk being shunned by their own party, and possibly harassed to no end by the very vocal and active ascendant progressive wing of the party? And it’s also possible that they could vote for Kavanaugh and still lose. The GOP is capitalizing on this big league, with Trump parachuting into North Dakota and Montana to keep turning the notches on the vice that has been squeezing this small corps of senators since the president announced his nomination (via AP):
President Donald Trump is taking the Washington debate over his Supreme Court nominee to the homes of two red-state Senate Democrats this week, elevating Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation as a political litmus test for voters.
Trump’s strategy aims to turn the screws on the lawmakers, Jon Tester of Montana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who find themselves caught between Senate leaders and progressive donors who are fighting Kavanaugh’s confirmation, and their states’ more conservative electorate, which is more broadly supportive of Trump’s pick.
Neither senator has laid down a clear marker on how he or she will vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation, which Senate Republican leaders hope to bring to a vote before the full chamber later this month — just weeks before the general election.
Trump is holding a rally in Billings, Montana, on Thursday night, and then attending fundraisers in Fargo, North Dakota, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Friday.
The president might want to add Florida to his list. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) looks a bit shaky down there.
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