They did it, just like we knew they would. Four short years after saying that eight months before an election was too close to confirm—or even consider confirming—a new justice for the Supreme Court, Republican senators confirmed Amy Coney Barrett just eight days before Election Day. We’re going to need a new word for the level of head-spinning hypocrisy practiced by Sen. Mitch McConnell on this one. But I want us all to mark the words he used in justifying what he and his Republican Senate buddies did yesterday:
The reason this outcome came about is because we had a series of successful elections. What this administration and this Republican Senate has done is exercise the power that was given to us by the American people in a manner that is entirely within the rules of the Senate and the Constitution of the United States.
OK, Mitch, you got it. Come January when Joe Biden is sworn in, and when Democrats have majorities in the House and Senate, the time will be at hand to undo the Republican court-packing that has gone on since early in the Obama administration. Beyond the Supreme Court, there’s McConnell’s obstruction throughout the Obama presidency, and, more recently, his pressuring of Republican-appointed justices to retire ASAP so that he and Trump could further pack the court.
Democrats must restore balance to our judicial branch by unpacking it, and undoing the violation of our constitutional norms carried out by Republicans. And here’s the statement they should issue:
The reason this outcome manifested is because we had a series of successful elections. What this administration and this Democratic Senate have done is exercise the power that was given to us by the American people in a manner that is entirely within the rules of the Senate and the Constitution of the United States.
It’s not about payback, or karma. It’s about protecting our democracy. Still, shoving Mitch’s own words back down his throat does offer a certain degree of pleasure. Nothing wrong with that.