Popular vote loser Donald Trump might be waging civil war against Republicans, and in particular Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, but the Kentucky Republican isn't going to let a little thing like that get in the way of his primary goal in political life—reshaping the federal judiciary.
McConnell's emerging role reprises his moves last year guaranteeing that the vacancy caused by the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was saved for Trump and resulted in recent appointee Neil Gorsuch, a former Colorado-based US Appeals Court Judge. McConnell blocked action in 2016 on President Barack Obama's choice of Merrick Garland, chief judge of the US Appeals Court in Washington, DC.
A six-term senator from Kentucky, McConnell has continued to steer the stocking of the federal bench in a way that sets him apart from previous Senate majority leaders. He remains a point man for outside conservatives advocating for favored candidates, and he recently won swift confirmation of two Kentuckians for US appeals court judgeships.
Ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) says "Let me be clear: Democratic senators are doing their due diligence in reviewing these nominees," and adds "There's been no obstruction."
There needs to be obstruction. There needs to be total obstruction, but stopping judges would be the necessary starting point. The Garland travesty should have been all it took for Democrats to shut down everything. Not doing so demonstrated a weakness McConnell was sure to exploit with Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) happily chipping in. Democrats are already being shut out of the nomination process, with Grassley's apparent approval.
Feinstein isn't getting points with anyone by stressing her willingness to cooperate with Republicans. The rest of the Democrats on the committee, and in the whole Democratic conference, need to challenge her on that. It's not like they don't have ample cause to obstruct every bit of this—from the attempted Muslim ban to the Arpaio pardon to today's rescinding of DACA, Trump's willingness to trample the rule of law can't be overstated. He cannot be allowed to remake the judiciary.
Democrats cannot be a party to the destruction of the rule of law that Trump and McConnell threaten.