Senate Democrats are so upset about the recent confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, they just accepted a deal from Senate Republicans to confirm 15 more of Trump’s nominations for lifetime federal judges. Seriously. Did I mention that these are *lifetime* positions?
Yesterday it began as an ugly rumor:
Dear Chuck Schumer: Do not make a deal for more Trump judges by Joan McCarter
[Rumor is that] Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has made a deal to greenlight a whole mess of judicial nominees without roll call votes, through voice votes and unanimous consent.
Don’t. Do. It. Schumer.
Make McConnell work for everything. You would have plenty of Democratic senators willing to stick around D.C. to gum up the Senate works while your red state incumbents could go home and campaign. They need you to be fighting McConnell, particularly after the Brett Kavanaugh debacle.
Later that day, it was a done deal:
Democrats agree to confirmations of 15 Trump judges - Politco.com
Senate Democrats accepted an offer Thursday from Senate Republicans to confirm 15 lifetime federal judges in exchange for the ability to go into recess through the midterms, allowing endangered Democrats to campaign.
snip
Some liberal activists are urging Democrats to show more fight after Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court; Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos even said that Democrats “need a new Senate leader” after the agreement was struck. But senators had to weigh that dynamic along with the approaching midterms and the brutal Senate map. And with a half-dozen Democrats facing serious challenges in Senate races, it made more sense to make what Democrats said was a reasonable deal with McConnell so that they could make a serious run at saving endangered senators.
'This Is Pathetic': Progressives Furious as Schumer Rubber Stamps 15 More Right-Wing Judges for Trump - commondreams.org
"Make no mistake, today was yet another step in the GOP's takeover of our courts, stacking the deck against women and families at every level. Immediately following Kavanaugh's confirmation and all of the energy and despair around it, this deal is especially painful," NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue said in a statement.
"Through this deal," Hogue continued, "Democrats allowed Mitch McConnell and Republicans in Congress to fast track 15 more of Donald Trump's nominees, including David Porter and Mark Norris, whose biased views and extreme anti-choice records indicate they will shape our country in Donald Trump's brutal image for decades to come."
Make no mistake, these are the actions of “real” Democrats. They accepted a deal from the Republicans so they could go home early, instead of taking a principled stand against anti-choice judges.
It’s almost as if they are signalling that the Kavanaugh congressional hearing was a waste of their time. In the end Trump and the GOP got what they wanted anyway. Why spend time staying and fighting when there is other useful work that could be getting done?
I am grateful that I apparently agree with kos and Joan McCarter on this issue. What Senate Democrats have done here is so outrageous, especially after Kavanaugh, I find it difficult to believe that they actual did it.