The bullshit is running so deep with Senate Republicans, it's a wonder they can breathe. While they're refusing to allow President Obama to make a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court because, they say, it's too close to the election and "the people" should have a say, they're trying to figure out which lower court lifetime appointments might be helpful in their home states. Those appointments they might just allow. The ones that could help them.
"I don't think the situation with regard to Justice Scalia's vacancy is going to have any impact on those other appointments. We'll be processing those," John Cornyn, [the second-ranking Senate Republican and a former Texas Supreme Court] told POLITICO. "The fight is about [the Supreme Court], it's not about nominations in general."
But the possibility Republicans will move on some lifetime court nominations, but not the ultimate one, is already drawing charges of rank hypocrisy from Democrats. If and when McConnell schedules new judicial confirmation votes, a judge from GOP-dominated Tennessee is likely to be first up, aides said.
"I can't keep track of the number of double, triple and quadruple standards that are being set by Republicans," said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).
The discussion between Cornyn and Eggleston, of course, "centered around the senator's home state of Texas, where seven of the country's 31 judicial “emergencies”—openings deemed especially pressing because of heavy caseloads and understaffed benches—are located." One of the reasons Texas is in a judicial emergency is that for the whole of President Obama's first term, Cornyn and his colleague Ted Cruz refused to put forward any possible candidates for nomination. That's been just one of the tactics Republicans have used to achieve a record-setting level of obstruction of Obama's nominees.
The White House might try to capitalize on Republican efforts to make themselves not look so bad and use it to try to force through some confirmations. Just last week, it announced two nominations in South Carolina to the district court, basically daring Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott to block him.
Of course, Heritage Action—and Ted Cruz—are demanding no more confirmations at all. There's little reason to believe Cruz's failed presidential campaign will cause him to reconsider being a complete asshole in the Senate. He's likely to continue to do everything in his power—and he's on the Judiciary Committee, so he has some—to shut his colleagues down.
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