# Republicans eagerly pucker up and kiss Trump's ass again
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [November 14, 2019, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443 "2019-11-14T21:13:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2019, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443/1 "2019-11-14T21:13:38Z")
[Meet your new Federal judge-Steve Menashi.](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steven-menashi-republicans-senate-confirms-trump-judge_n_5dcd9beae4b00b9293bff09a)
> [@](#):
>
> The Senate voted Thursday to make Steven Menashi a lifetime federal judge, despite his inflammatory writings about women’s rights and diversity, his refusal to answer senators’ questions and his role in devising an illegal Education Department effort to deny debt relief to students cheated by for-profit colleges.
> Every Democrat present voted against confirming Menashi, who is President Donald Trump’s choice for a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. Every Republican present but one, Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), voted to confirm him.
This idiot has never tried a case, made oral arguments in court or conducted a deposition, so what qualified him in Trump’s eyes?
> [@](#):
>
> In past editorials, Menashi, who is currently Trump’s White House legal aide, compared race data collection in college admissions to Germany under Adolf Hitler; denounced women’s marches against sexual assault; opposed the “radical abortion rights codified in Roe v. Wade”; accused the Human Rights Campaign of having “incessantly exploited the slaying of Matthew Shepard” for political benefit, and claimed that a Dartmouth fraternity wasn’t being racist when it held a “ghetto party” attended by white students donning Afros and carrying toy guns.
> He also spread the Islamophobic myth that in 1913, Gen. John Pershing executed Muslim prisoners in the Philippines using bullets dipped in pig fat.
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### Author:  [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2019, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443/2 "2019-11-14T21:25:48Z")
This is the type of thing I worry about more than him shooting off a missile at someone. We should vet judges for almost all the courts.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2019, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443/3 "2019-11-14T22:36:52Z")
So when Republicans say that they’re willing to overlook Trump’s personal flaws and support him because he will appoint conservative judges, this is what they’re talking about.
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### Author:  [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2019, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443/4 "2019-11-14T22:59:44Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> So when Republicans say that they’re willing to overlook Trump’s personal flaws and support him because he will appoint conservative judges, this is what they’re talking about.
Yes.
It’s not just Trump that Republicans are voting for; it’s Trump and McConnell who are a political odd couple that has become a radical right wing judge factory. This is what people who knew better but stayed home or voted third party to spite Hillary didn’t quite consider: it may not matter if we get a progressive president in 2020 because their fresh welfare state ideas will get ground up in the courts.
And I can’t be the only one whose heart skips a beat whenever I read news that Ruth Bader Ginsburg is absent from the Court due to illness.
Trump and McConnell are very close to having total control of the courts, and it won’t matter a damn if John Roberts wants to put on his Anthony Kennedy costume.
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### Author:  [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2019, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443/5 "2019-11-15T02:29:34Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> So when Republicans say that they’re willing to overlook Trump’s personal flaws and support him because he will appoint conservative judges, this is what they’re talking about.
I agree wholeheartedly. For good chunks of the “rational” part of the Republican party (say, like Bricker or my sister), the judiciary was a huge reason for tolerating the “fringes” of the Republican party. This is a major reason why the Republicans who want to pretend to be rational are willing to tolerate blatant racism, ceaseless lying, obstruction of justice, and the unstopping bullshit of this administrayion.
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### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2019, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443/6 "2019-11-15T03:09:52Z")
This is the long-term damage that has been done by this administration even if he becomes the former president tomorrow.
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### Author:  [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2019, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443/7 "2019-11-15T03:36:06Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> [Meet your new Federal judge-Steve Menashi.](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steven-menashi-republicans-senate-confirms-trump-judge_n_5dcd9beae4b00b9293bff09a)
>
> This idiot has never tried a case, made oral arguments in court or conducted a deposition, **so what qualified him in Trump’s eyes?**
LOL, you’re still assuming that ‘qualified’ has anything to do with Trump’s (McConnell’s) judicial appointees! It isn’t, and it hasn’t been from the beginning. They are after _partisans_. The more partisan the better – which is exactly the opposite of how it’s meant to be done.
I won’t insult your intelligence by saying that for a long time, nominated judges would often demonstrate a partisan bent, but it was usually politely mild. Republicans have ripped the mask off. It’s _all_ about partisanship with them now. Merrick Garland, Obama’s attempt at normal judicial nomination, makes me weep with nostalgia.
**ThelmaLou** nails it. We will live with this damage for decades.
Steve Menashi is a total piece-of-shit loon. I am confident there will be ample reason based on his personal conduct to remove him. If Dems prevail in 2020, such action should be a priority.
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2019, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443/8 "2019-11-15T05:19:44Z")
OP lays to rest the meme that Republicans are well-intentioned good-spirited people only loosely allied with Donald Trump. All but one R senator voted for a clearly unqualified Trump ass-licker.
Note that _every_ judge appointed now will be a virulent right-winger. They didn’t _need_ to appoint this particular Trump-licking hate-filled slug. But they did.
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### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2019, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443/9 "2019-11-15T05:27:44Z")
The fact that these people have no experience is a feature, not a bug.
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### Author:  [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2019, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443/10 "2019-11-15T05:28:04Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#):
>
> Steve Menashi is a total piece-of-shit loon. I am confident there will be ample reason based on his personal conduct to remove him. If Dems prevail in 2020, such action should be a priority.
Should we expect masses of judge impeachments from 2021 onward? I doubt it. Even nominees who explicitly lied during confirmation hearings seem immune.
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### Author:  [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2019, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443/11 "2019-11-15T13:41:37Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#):
>
> This is the long-term damage that has been done by this administration even if he becomes the former president tomorrow.
And all the Bernie Bros smugly assured us silly wimmens that we couldn’t blackmail their pure unicorn selves with the SCOTUS.
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### Author:  [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2019, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443/12 "2019-11-15T14:19:13Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#):
>
> This is the long-term damage that has been done by this administration even if he becomes the former president tomorrow.
Sad but true! This situation sickens me to no end.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2019, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443/13 "2019-11-15T15:06:58Z")
> [@Locrian](#):
>
> We should vet judges for almost all the courts.
While I agree with the sentiment, there’s a rather important practical point: who’s “we”? Because the current system is supposed to involve vetting but isn’t working. Which “we” would work better?
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### Author:  [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2019, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443/14 "2019-11-15T16:07:24Z")
> [@Gyrate](#):
>
> While I agree with the sentiment, there’s a rather important practical point: who’s “we”? Because the current system is supposed to involve vetting but isn’t working. Which “we” would work better?
Canadians. You’d be hard pressed to find anybody more trustworthy.
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### Author:  [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2019, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-eagerly-pucker-up-and-kiss-trumps-ass-again/843443/15 "2019-11-15T21:21:54Z")
> [@septimus](#):
>
> Note that _every_ judge appointed now will be a virulent right-winger. They didn’t _need_ to appoint this particular Trump-licking hate-filled slug. But they did.
That is what needs to be understood: the standards of judicial appointment, the system that establishes and maintains those standards is essentially broken. Judges don’t have to be competent in the law; they simply have to have the right ideology.
If you look at what dysfunctional authoritarian states and kleptocracies do, this is it. They use the judicial system to validate their regime and whatever it does on the basis of ideology and loyalty. This is what Russian courts do for Putin. This is what Turkish courts do for Erdogan.
During the Cold War, America’s export to Eastern European countries and other less stable allies was support for building a stable state based on self-rule. Trump and McConnell’s America is actually importing Russia’s manual for how to build an autocracy.
- rig the courts
- hire partisans in the justice department
- investigate your enemies (or threaten to)
- threaten journalists and book authors
- limit press access
- suggest that violence against critics and opposition is legitimate
What this country is faced with is the fact that a faction that is small but possessing disproportionate power is governing against the interests and desires of the majority, able to pass tax cuts that are advantageous to an infinitesimally small segment of the population and highly unpopular with the rest.
Both the political minority (white christian nationalist republicans) and the rest of us are aware of the dynamics. We’re now aware that we’re being governed not by a majority but by a powerful faction. What’s more, though, the minority is increasingly aware, increasingly cognizant of this fact, and they’re hyper-vigilant to defend their power by any means that are less than democratic because they know that democracy is their enemy.
Know this: as Democrats pull more and more converts to their side in local elections, statewide races, and congressional races, and as it becomes more apparent that disguised forms of voter suppression may not be as effective as they need these tactics to be, the republicans will become even more desperate, more outlandish, and, more dangerous. It’s good that Matt Bevin was rebuffed by his own party, but that’s probably because the Kentucky GOP felt that Bevin was more of a liability and that they could manage fine working with a Democratic GOP who will be overpowered anyway. If you listened closely, though, they didn’t necessarily reject or dismiss the notion that they couldn’t just give the election to Bevin. Rather, they likely concluded that it wasn’t necessary at this point.