One of the worst fears of all progressives happened last night: Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and Donald Trump gets his chance to replace her on the Supreme Court and remake the nation further in his own anti-democratic, anti-constitutional image.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already announced--before RBG's body is in the ground and her family has been able to sit shiva--that he will push through any confirmation before the end of the year and preferably before the election, in other words in just under six weeks. The only sure way to prevent that is for four Republican Senators to step up and act on principle and conscience and not on party loyalty.
You will remember that, in 2016, McConnell refused to even hold hearings, let alone a vote, on President Obama's nominee to replace Justice Scalia, holding that, in an election year, "the people" ought to get to vote before a nomination was confirmed. Now, with essentially the same circumstances (and, indeed, even closer to the election), McConnell is rushing to prevent exactly the situation he preferred four years ago.
The GOP has a three-vote majority in the Senate. If four Republicans refuse to confirm, then McConnell and Trump's plan fails. (Three won't do--that would be a tie to be decided by Vice-President Pence...and we all know how he would vote.) Alaska's Lisa Murkowski has already said she will not confirm a nominee until at least after the election; Maine's Susan Collins is said to leaning that way; Utah's Mitt Romney, known to be completely at odds with Trump, has not said anything but is likely to vote "no" as well.
So, who is a likely fourth GOP defector? Any thoughts?
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