http://hotair.com/archives/2018/10/12/cocaine-mitch-nets-15-judicial-appointments-payment-recess/
Red-state Democratic incumbents finally get a chance to hit the campaign trail, but not without paying a price. Mitch McConnell got fifteen judicial nominees through a logjam in the Senate, where Chuck Schumer had demanded to use up every last minute of debate time to slow down appointments to the federal bench. The Washington Post called it a "ransom." ...
A "ransom," eh? Awwww, BOO HOO!
McConnell didn't just settle for the judges, either. He got nearly two dozen other appointees confirmed at the same time:
But ultimately Democrats paid McConnell's ransom to get their incumbents back home. Under the deal, the Senate confirmed all 15 judicial nominees Thursday evening. The Senate also confirmed 21 executive-branch nominees by unanimous consent Thursday, including several assistant secretaries of state, an assistant secretary of defense and deputy administrators for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and NASA.
Three of the newly confirmed judges will sit on circuit courts; the remainder are district court judges.
Until last night, McConnell had planned to keep the upper chamber in session until the end of October. Under the rules, McConnell said, that was the amount of time necessary to wait out the 30 hours of debate on each judicial nomination. That would have left less than two weeks for incumbents to go back to their states and campaign.
Under normal circumstances, that would have hurt both parties equally, but not this cycle. Democrats are defending 26 seats, including in special elections, while Republicans are only defending nine. Only one GOP seat is in a state won by Hillary Clinton in 2016 (Dean Heller in Nevada), but ten Democratic incumbents are running in states Trump won two years ago. The longer McConnell kept them locked up in DC, the more time their Republican challengers had to undermine them back home - and Chuck Schumer knew it.
Mike DeBonis points out that this could end up backfiring on Schumer, too:
Trump and McConnell have put a heavy emphasis on judicial nominations - not only confirming Supreme Court justices Kavanaugh and Neil M. Gorsuch but installing more than two dozen appeals court judges in Trump's first 21 months in office, a record pace.
That Democrats would consent to accelerating that effort infuriated liberal activists already incensed at how Republicans muscled Kavanaugh onto the bench despite allegations of sexual misconduct.
Unsubstantiated allegations of sexual misconduct, from thirty-six years ago, that had never arisen before his Supreme Court confirmation despite more than 20 years in the national public eye. More to the point, however, the payment of the "ransom" might well have a deflating effect on the same people Senate Democrats whipped into a fury over the last three weeks. Whatever credit they may have earned for their attempts to block Kavanaugh could well be dissipating as they bail out of Washington this weekend. ...
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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