In January, when President Joe Biden made it clear he intended to nominate a Black woman for the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered what The New York Times called a “stern warning” to Biden against making a radical choice. Instead, declared McConnell, Biden needed to look for someone who would “govern from the middle, steward our institutions and unite America.”
The Supreme Court seat would eventually be filled by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, but there was one name that even Republicans seemed to believe would have satisfied the need for a consensus candidate. Someone who reportedly had the backing of the two Republican senators in her home state of South Carolina: Judge J. Michelle Childs. When the vote came down on Justice Jackson, McConnell dismissed her as exactly the wrong sort of choice. However, he also said, ”I could have supported [Judge Childs], a highly qualified, sensible, commonsense person" to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court.
And then, when Judge Childs was actually up for appointment to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday, McConnell did exactly what you’d expect of someone who approved of Childs for a seat on the nation’s highest court: He voted against her.
In response to why he voted against Childs for a lesser position when he had said he would support her for the most powerful post available, McConnell gave this highly coherent response.
“So now, I know why Judge Jackson was the preferred pick of the radical left. Now, I know why they went after Michelle Childs, somebody I could have supported—even though she had been liberal—a highly qualified, sensible, commonsense person. Now, I know. Now, I understand better. And that is why I am voting no.”
Is this a surprise? Not really. Stacking the courts with the most radical right-wing nightmares, including judges whose qualifications wouldn’t net them a night job sweeping up at Waffle House, is McConnell’s lifetime achievement. He is the man who broke the Supreme Court, then broke it again. He’s the No. 1 reason that Roe v. Wade is no more.
By this point, Mitch McConnell’s pretense at some sort of “comity” and “unity” isn’t just laughable: It’s contemptible. There is no more sure way of having something fail than trusting McConnell to stick to his word. No one should believe his lies, and no one should give a damn about what he thinks.
Also, Judge Childs did just fine without his lying ass.
Related Stories:
Democrats need to fill a lot of judicial vacancies fast, which means no more deals with McConnell
Biden courts disastrous fight with fellow Democrats over McConnell’s forced birther nominee
Biden needs to end the fiasco of making deals with McConnell on extremist judges