It's Wednesday, May 11 and Day 88 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell laid down his Supreme Court blockade: No meetings, no hearings, no votes on his replacement. It's also Day 56 since President Obama named Merrick Garland to be Scalia's replacement. What's the Senate doing today instead of considering the Supreme Court nominee?
Continuing with an appropriation bill that will probably never end up being enacted, since the House isn't doing that kind of thing anymore. But they already had an accomplishment this morning, of sorts. They defeated Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton's amendment, the one intended to throw a monkey wrench President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, the amendment that has been forcing weeks of wheel-spinning on McConnell's part. The appropriations bill is now expected to go forward and be passed, only to be ignored by the House.
There's more where that came from, McConnell promises: The immediate future will be all about passing these spending bills that are almost certainly going to be ignored by the House. That's how McConnell thinks he'll deal with the Trump problem—by pretending like the Senate will function normally, even with Trump looming over them.
As if that will distract voters from the fact that Republicans are still blockading a Supreme Court nominee, or that they think Donald Trump would do a great job of picking the Supreme Court.
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