Transphobia! Shame!
It’s not polite to refer to him by his pre-transition name, of course.
Damn right. Merrick is practically the definition of a compromise candidate. If the appointment is stalled until the election, your choices (assume you kept your seat) the choices will be Jerry Garcia or Johnny Cochrane.
It’s Karlisha Marx they are scared of.
Garland is also effectively the highest-ranking judge in the country who is not already a Supreme. There is no way to argue that he’s not the most qualified candidate.
“Most qualified” is always a bit subjective. He is unquestionably exceptionally well qualified.
I think it was a brilliant nomination. The Republicans have a tough choice, block it and look like idiots, or confirm him and look like idiots.
Given the Orrin Hatch quote above, this is even a tougher one on the Republicans. Remember he is the former chair and still current member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
I think it’s a gift to the republicans. This may be the only guy in the world they can walk back their bluster on: they can be like “we never thought he’d make such an intelligent and well-reasoned choice.” Hatch literally promised to back this guy in 2010. And after yesterday and the real possibility of a Trump nomination, they have to want to be walking this back.
Bingo.
I think you can make a strong argument that the Republicans beat Obama once again. They said they wouldn’t accept any nominees he chose, Orrin Hatch suggested a nominee Republicans would accept, and Obama complied and nominated their suggestion.
That’s a little strong. It’s not like Republicans would have ever nominated Garland if they really had free choice.
I fail to see why holding hearings or even confirming now even though Republicans said they would not is any great fault. Sure they fumbled on strategy at the outset by announcing they would not hold hearings, but their position could evolve, no? Given Merrick is not necessarily a far left judge, Republicans evolving in their position could easily be played as part of a strategy to successfully influence the nomination.
If so, according to the NYTs, they’ll be confirming someone smack in the middle of the liberal justice bloc.
Slick move, sending Hatch’s serve right back at him.
I csn see them wait until after the downticket primaries are all done for the Senate seats that may be at risk of flipping, especially if there’s strong polling by TeaPots and Trumpeteers in those states.
In normal times, yes. But if they walk it back, now, their base could go from frothing-at-the-mouth to catastrophic-explosive-rage.
And you’d be able to tell, how?
Volume of spittle? Coherence of sentences? Vibration frequency?
They don’t believe in evolution. 
Seriously though, if it had just been one press conference or similar where they said they wouldn’t consider anyone at any point before the election, one can see them walking that back. But when you say it repeatedly and published a letter with signatures writ large saying that you won’t, any compromise will weaken your credibility.
They didn’t just draw a line in the sand; they dug a trench. It’s not going to be easy to move.
As I have said, once Mitch McConnell painted them into a particularly constrained corner for no reason, swiftly confirming Obama’s nominee became their best option. They look like idiots in any event; at least getting the issue off the table now minimizes the harm it does them (the Senators themselves, in particular) in the general election campaign.
Republicans can always confirm AFTER Hillary wins and avoid a super liberal nominee.