While you generally can’t get most of the liberal media to bring up this subject even if you pointed a can of mace at them, it definitely seemed like one of the bigger blunders in recent political history when Joe Biden literally told voters that they don’t deserve to know his position on packing the Supreme Court if he wins the election. His running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, was quickly forced to follow suit, though she was at least a bit less blunt about it. This has left a number of other high-profile Democrats scrambling for their own answers on the rare occasions when a journalist dares to broach the subject.
That opportunity presented itself yet again on Sunday during Meet the Press. Dick Durbin, the Democrats’ number two man in the upper chamber, was asked whether he would or wouldn’t support a spree of court-packing and why his party’s presidential nominee wouldn’t answer the question. You could almost see him visibly squirming as he struggled to come up with an answer. (NBC News)
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the number-two Democrat in the Senate, sidestepped questions Sunday about whether he supports progressive calls to expand the size of the U.S. Supreme Court and accused Republicans of packing the federal courts by blocking Democratic nominees during the Obama administration, then filling large numbers of vacancies under President Donald Trump.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has repeatedly refused to detail his stance on the issue of expanding the court, and Durbin Sunday brushed aside direct questions, saying Republicans have been doing it in practice.
“The American people have watched Republicans packing the court over the last three and a half years, and they brag about it, that they’ve taken every vacancy and filled it,” Durbin said during an exclusive interview on “Meet the Press.”
Durbin was attempting to employ a combination of two different strategies we’ve seen the Democrats use on this subject. He first went for the Kamala Harris routine of answering a different question than the one that was asked. When that didn’t satisfy the interviewer, he resorted to the newer tactic that Ed examined this week. He attempted to claim that Republicans starting “packing the courts first.” That’s what Biden told reporters over the weekend and what his spokesperson attempted to peddle off on Jake Tapper yesterday as well. (Without much success.)
The idea that Republicans have been “packing” the courts by filling vacancies is obvious nonsense. It’s part of the job they were elected to do. And there’s clearly nothing “unconstitutional” going on at the moment unless your definition of the word includes “stuff I don’t like.”
Durbin then went on to step on yet another rake by dredging up Merrick Garland and how lamentable it was that the Republicans didn’t hold confirmation hearings for him during an election year. Excuse me? So you’re saying that the Senate GOP failed to do its job in 2016 by not filling a SCOTUS seat, but now they are somehow violating the Constitution by filling a seat? I suppose a foolish consistency really is the hobgoblin of little minds in Durbin’s world.
Finally, in an effort to get away from all of the pesky facts and dump some political hot takes into the Mix, Durbin decided to simply attack Amy Coney Barrett. To manage that feat, he attempted to portray her as Donald Trump’s handmaiden who is heading to the court to do her master’s evil bidding.
Durbin criticized the nomination, saying that Barrett is being “sent on assignment to the Supreme Court by President Trump” to “eliminate the Affordable Care Act” and “be there if the president needs her on an election contest.”
In case Durbin hasn’t been paying attention for the past few decades, Republicans haven’t exactly had a sterling record in terms of getting GOP-appointed SCOTUS justices to “do their bidding.” Look no further for examples than John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy. Given her history, I’m sure ACB will deliver solid, conservative opinions on the court, but once she takes her seat, she no longer owes Donald Trump or anyone else on the planet a thing and is free to vote as she feels the Consitution demands. And the GOP won’t always be happy about it, I assure you. That’s just the way of the world.
