Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is on the record as saying that he'd consider a filibuster against President Trump's Supreme Court nominee if he or she is outside of the "mainstream" (which is a bit rich coming from someone who accidentally admitted to how promiscuously he tosses about the term "extreme"). Schumer has since announced that he supports a 60-vote threshold to confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch, whom left-wing activists, lawmakers, and editorial boards are predictably and unconvincingly painting as a wild-eyed monster. Consider this tweeted hyperventilation from Oregon liberal Ron Wyden:
Gorsuch represents a breathtaking retreat from the notion that Americans have fundamental Constitutional rights.
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) February 1, 2017
This is paint-by-numbers pablum, matched in its inanity and vacuity only by the pre-made, glossy placards printed up by professional left-wing agitators to hand out to their astroturf outrage army:
We live in such an odd time. People outside SCOTUS with professional "Neil Gorsuch: Extreme and Dangerous" signs already. pic.twitter.com/TgZ2LSK1ba
— Kathryn Jean Lopez (@kathrynlopez) February 1, 2017
This the degree to which this protest was anti-organic and anti-grassroots is almost comical. Back to Wyden, who may have forgotten is that he himself voted to confirm Gorsuch in 2006, the year in which the young jurist was appointed to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, out West. According to the Denver Post, he was confirmed unanimously by voice vote "because the nomination wasn't deemed controversial." Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, a persistent and reasoned Trump skeptic, has been fulsome in his praise for Trump's selection, reminding Democrats of a few facts regarding the man they're attempting to cast as a radical:
By the way, protestors-
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) February 1, 2017
Among those who were in the Senate when Gorsuch was last unanimously confirmed:
*Obama
*Biden
*Clinton &
*Schumer https://t.co/f4LxORvYCA
Here's a more complete list, featuring every sitting Democratic Senator who gave Gorsuch the green light during the Bush administration. The Weekly Standard's Steve Hayes marvels at how thin and desperate the professional Left's attacks on Gorsuch have been thus far. They've had months to prepare a dossier, and they've more or less whiffed completely:
Recommended
Listening to Democrats react to Neil Gorsuch nomination and struck by how utterly trivial and bankrupt their objections sound.
— Stephen Hayes (@stephenfhayes) February 1, 2017
Read this piece by Ed Whelan for a clearer picture of just how little they've got in the way of substance, hence the dramatic hyperbole exemplified in Sen. Wyden's tweet. And just as Senate Democrats begin to splinter over how to approach this nomination fight, in swoops MSNBC's Rachel Maddow to pronounce President Trump's choice...well, "relatively mainstream," who might have been picked "by any Republican president." To her credit, and the Left's chagrin, it's an accurate assessment -- and they all know it:
We've been keeping track of the Democratic Senators who are bucking the base's demands for an all-out war to block Gorsuch. (It bears noting that Democrats' escalating confirmation-related obstructionism on another front was smacked down by hardball-playing Republicans just this morning. The only way to get them to learn is to burn them with their own tactics, it seems). The latest Democrat to commit to a vote is Dick Durbin, a member of leadership -- which indicates that a full-blown street brawl isn't materializing over this nomination. Perhaps Democrats are deciding to keep their powder dry to try to take down a nominee to fill a future vacancy. I'll leave you with a ringing endorsement for Gorsuch from President Obama's former Solicitor General, as well as a temper tantrum from a crestfallen Clintonite:Solicitor general Neal Katyal, who served under Obama, says he "strongly" supports Gorsuch for the court. pic.twitter.com/Gd2TFiOhes
— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) February 1, 2017
Should the loser of the popular vote be entitled to fill a stolen Supreme Court seat? https://t.co/VXYCtp02B7
— Paul Begala (@PaulBegala) February 1, 2017
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