• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

This blog will pay for itself.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Second rate reporter says what?

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

People are weird.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Judiciary Committee Update

Judiciary Committee Update

by Betty Cracker|  April 21, 20232:23 pm| 190 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, Open Threads, Politics

FacebookTweetEmail

TPM reporter Emine Yücel wrote a piece that shed some light on an issue we discussed here the other day vis-à-vis Dianne Feinstein’s absence on the Judiciary Committee and how Repubs are using it to keep Biden’s judicial picks from moving on to confirmation.

Feinstein offered to step aside temporarily, but Repubs balked and hinted they’d leverage their ability to gum up the works to force Dems to choose someone terrible, like Kyrsten Sinema.

I figured this was a flex aimed at blocking a temporary appointment and that if Feinstein resigned, the Dems would get to choose her replacement without Repub interference. Not so, according to Jon Tester:

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) set off alarm bells around the Capitol on Wednesday when he told Politico that there’s a strong possibility Senate Republicans would refuse to fill the vacancy on the Judiciary Committee even if Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) were to resign. A senior aide to a Democratic senator said Tester’s comments generated intense speculation around the Capitol…

However, top Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans have since confirmed they would not go that far. The reason for their reluctance is that blocking a replacement for a retiring senator would be a dramatic break from precedent.

Would that be a “dramatic break from precedent” like robbing President Obama of a SCOTUS pick after Scalia took a dirt nap, allegedly on the grounds that the presidential election was coming up a year later? And then turning around and ramming through an extremist nominated by Trump when Americans were already voting in an election that would kick Trump to the curb?

The article explains that GOP committee members Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn made mouth noises about following precedent and filling the vacancy if Feinstein resigns, but nobody in their right mind would trust either of those grinning, hypocritical vipers. Looks like Feinstein really is the indispensable woman she imagines herself to be, at least for the next year and change.

The more I learn about the arcane rules and customs of the U.S. Senate, the more surprised I am our government has more or less puttered along for 230-plus years without collapsing in a heap of total and irrevocable dysfunction. “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body” my ass — it’s a complete shit-show!

Open thread.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Gradually, then all at once…
Next Post: SCOTUS Stays the Bullshit Texas Ruling on Mifepristone, Pending Full Appeal »

Reader Interactions

190Comments

  1. 1.

    Nora

    April 21, 2023 at 2:28 pm

    If there were a vengeful God, both Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn would be struck by lightning for saying ANYTHING about following precedent, those lying liars. In fact, neither one of them would have been alive to make those absurd comments because they would have been blasted into ashes years ago.

  2. 2.

    ghost of SAIFTF

    April 21, 2023 at 2:29 pm

    the evidence is in, and Sensible Centrists are where fucking fascists go to launder their extremism. cant be showing up with bloodstains. bad for business. usually.

  3. 3.

    Roger Moore

    April 21, 2023 at 2:35 pm

    The more I learn about the arcane rules and customs of the U.S. Senate, the more surprised I am our government has more or less puttered along for 230-plus years without collapsing in a heap of total and irrevocable dysfunction.

    The rules matter less than people’s willingness to make things work. As long as the large majority of people want the system to work, it’s possible to make even a pretty broken system work. If a substantial minority wants to break things, they can probably find the holes and pain points in just about any system. Yes, a really well designed system will mean you need a larger, meaner minority to really break things, but the biggest difference is that willingness.

  4. 4.

    The Moar You Know

    April 21, 2023 at 2:35 pm

    I always recommend to anyone Robert Caro’s book #3 of his biography of LBJ, “Master of the Senate”, less for what it has to tell you about LBJ (there’s a total of four books and one still to come, hopefully) but for the absolutely exhaustive detail about how the United States Senate actually works (hasn’t changed much since the 1960s).

    It was a body formulated deliberately from its inception to not get anything done or allow anything to change.

  5. 5.

    Jeffg166

    April 21, 2023 at 2:42 pm

    It is amazing we got this far with all the morons we have had over the centuries in Congress.

  6. 6.

    RaflW

    April 21, 2023 at 2:44 pm

    The great thing about puttering along for 230-plus years without collapsing in a heap of total and irrevocable dysfunction?

    We — us very lucky people — get to be the witnesses (and, in very bit parts, participants in) the collapse.

  7. 7.

    Betty Cracker

    April 21, 2023 at 2:50 pm

    @Roger Moore: I agree that people’s willingness to make things work is critical, but is it more important than the rules? I’m unconvinced on that point. The baked-in rules that structure the U.S. Senate disconnect votes from legislation by privileging land masses over human beings. That undermines democracy right out of the gate.

    Sure, it’s worse now that we have a full-time vandal party that actively sabotages the government. But the rules suck too because they empower the saboteurs to an irrational and anti-democratic degree.

  8. 8.

    trollhattan

    April 21, 2023 at 2:53 pm

    Our paper kept out of the DiFi issue as long as they could (Sacramento!) but finally weighed in this week. They’re not wrong: it’s time. Past time.

    Sen. Dianne Feinstein has been a barrier-shattering force in California politics who will long be remembered for her leadership and legislative achievements during her 30 consequential years in the U.S. Senate. But since February, when she was diagnosed with shingles, Feinstein has been unable to perform her sworn duties. Though the shingles infection is not life-threatening, it can cause severe and painful complications in people over 60. Feinstein will be 90 in June, and she was hospitalized for a time in early March. During her absence from the Senate, the Judiciary Committee has been divided among 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats, stalling President Joe Biden’s judicial nominations. Feinstein would be the decisive vote if she were able to cast it and it takes 60 votes to change committee assignments. The Democrats don’t have 60 votes. Republicans are blocking Democratic efforts to replace Feinstein temporarily while her continued absence remains shrouded in silence. As of last week, Feinstein had missed 60 of 82 Senate votes.

    For the good of the people and for the sake of the important work frozen in her absence, Feinstein should retire now. We do not come to this belief capriciously, nor would we ever discount Feinstein’s singular legacy. Her story is remarkable. Feinstein burst onto the national stage in 1978 — and became the first woman to be mayor of San Francisco — after the shocking assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. In 1992, Feinstein and former Sen. Barbara Boxer became the first women elected to the U.S. Senate from California. There were only two women in the U.S. Senate before Feinstein arrived in January 1993. Now there are 25.

    In 2018, Feinstein teamed with then-Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to secure hundreds of millions of federal dollars for California water storage projects as well as desalination and water recycling programs. As a benefit to San Joaquin Valley farmers, her work also gave the federal government’s Central Valley Project and the State Water Project more flexibility to increase water deliveries through the massive pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. In her heyday, Feinstein’s brand of bipartisan deal-making was celebrated, but that is no longer the case. She is now largely viewed by progressives as being too accommodating to Senate Republicans. Her friendships with Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins from Maine became flashpoints when both voted to confirm judges Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Both conservative jurists later voted to repeal Roe v. Wade. Feinstein is also the oldest current member of the U.S. Senate and the longest-serving woman in Senate history. Meanwhile, only a handful of acting senators have ever been older than Feinstein in the history of our nation.

    Age and partisanship are not good enough reasons to suggest that a senator of Feinstein’s stature — or any elected official, for that matter — should retire before completing a duly elected term in office. She simply is no longer physically able to meet the standard that she set during her long career. In fact, it was Boxer, Feinstein’s pioneering former colleague in the Senate, who summed up why Feinstein should retire now before her term is up next year. Boxer said that Feinstein once told her, “The longer you stay(in the Senate), the better you’ll feel, the more you’ll get done.” “She was right. There’s no question about it,” Boxer told the Bay Area News Group last week. “But having said that, you’ve got to be able to do the job.”

    As a consequence of Sen. Feinstein’s absence, Biden’s nominees are no longer moving quickly through the committee. Only judges with bipartisan support are advancing to floor votes before the full Senate. Republicans have already blocked a request by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to replace Feinstein on the Judiciary Committee. Sen. Graham, Feinstein’s longtime friend, objected to Schumer’s resolution to temporarily replace Feinstein, as did the entire GOP caucus. There is no other workaround. It’s difficult and poignant to recommend that Feinstein step down because of her admirable service and because of her deserved place among the most notable California legislators ever. But the voters of California deserve a senator who is able to execute her official duties effectively.

    The minuscule majority held by Democrats in the Senate cannot be sacrificed or endangered out of respect for one individual, no matter how noteworthy. One of the few Democrats to speak openly about why Feinstein needs to retire, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said, “While (Feinstein) has had a lifetime of public service, it is obvious she can no longer fulfill her duties.” “Not speaking out undermines our credibility as elected representatives of the people,” Khanna said. It is no secret that Feinstein has suffered a cognitive decline in recent years. In 2020, Feinstein stepped down as the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee because of her mishandling of the U.S. Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett.

    As the Associated Press wrote at the time, “That tension came to a head at the Barrett hearings, when Feinstein closed out the proceedings with an embrace for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and a public thanks to Graham for a job well done. Democrats fiercely opposed Barrett’s nomination to replace the late liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” Then in recent months, Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff declared their intentions to seek Feinstein’s seat before she had officially relinquished it. Feinstein finally announced in February that she would retire at the end of her current term. (Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland has subsequently announced that she is also running for Feinstein’s seat). Feinstein had hoped to serve until January of 2025 when she would be 91. But that eventuality can no longer be delayed. The senior senator could still step aside with honor by informing Gov. Gavin Newsom of her intentions to retire. Newsom has already said he would select a Black woman to finish out Feinstein’s term if she retired. Elected officials owe it to voters to “well and faithfully discharge the duties” of their office. Feinstein did so for decades with distinction and honor on behalf of the people of California and the United States of America.

    If she retired now, Feinstein’s final political act would preserve her legacy as a leader who remained faithful to her duties to the end. She could preserve and strengthen her rightful place not just in California history, but American history.

    https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article274493596.html#storylink=cpy

  9. 9.

    sdhays

    April 21, 2023 at 2:54 pm

    Good lord. Why does this shit have to be subject to a filibuster?

    Threaten the nuclear option. Even Manchin should (I know, I know) be persuadable that basic things like this shouldn’t be subject to filibuster if it’s going to be abused. If 50 Democrats say they’ll blow up the filibuster for the resolution to organize the Senate committees if Feinstein resigns and Republicans try to block her replacement, then the fuckers will back down. Or the filibuster takes another well-deserved hit.

    But in the interim, why can’t DiFi, who is a multi-millionaire, rent a lovely apartment near Capitol Hill and have herself wheeled in for critical votes? Why does she have to be completely checked out in California, unless she’s basically gone, in which case she just needs to resign no matter what the Republicans are threatening?

  10. 10.

    eversor

    April 21, 2023 at 2:55 pm

    My department got shit canned today.  Mostly my fault, I got lippy.  But I run the IT security desk, it’s my job to keep you out of issues.  So if I am pitching a fit you have a problem and I’m trying to save your stupid ass.  Have a few new leads so should have a new job in a month.

    Lucky for me cleared IT people are highly in demand here.  And telling a recruiter you told someone to piss up a tree because they made a non ethical demand is not held against you.

    They can still piss up a tree.  I’m not covering up their shit.  And their stupid fucking asses didn’t make me sign an NDA or offer me a package so I can sue them into the ground.  I’m also not bound to stay silent about what they did so good luck jerks!

  11. 11.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 2:56 pm

    Is shingles contagious? Maybe Feinstein should show up and give Lindsey a big old hug and a kiss on the mouth.

  12. 12.

    Chris

    April 21, 2023 at 2:58 pm

    @RaflW:

    Yeah…  It’s kind of crazy that people cite the United States Constitution’s 230-year streak and just assume, rather than a possible sign that the system you’re operating under might be seriously missing out on most of 230 years of societal evolution.

    I mean, imagine boasting “oh yeah, my office has been using the same computers since 1950!”  Really?  Have your computers been adapted to floppy disks yet, or is that still a bit advanced for them?

  13. 13.

    Chris

    April 21, 2023 at 2:59 pm

    @eversor:

    Yeesh, I am sorry.  Wish you the best of luck finding a better employer.

  14. 14.

    trollhattan

    April 21, 2023 at 3:00 pm

    @eversor: Sic ’em! (Also an EFG fuck ’em.)

    Hope you stick the landing. It’s always excruciating to work at a place headed in the exact wrong direction. I know.

  15. 15.

    Betty Cracker

    April 21, 2023 at 3:00 pm

    @trollhattan: I’m glad they lauded Feinstein while calling for her to pack it in. It’s easy to get impatient with the situation and crap on Feinstein for not retiring earlier — not without justice, IMO — but she really was a trailblazer.

    Given this latest info though, maybe Dems are better off hoping Feinstein can hang in there and return to work. I sure as hell don’t trust Repubs to keep their word.

  16. 16.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 3:01 pm

    @trollhattan:

    They’re not wrong: it’s time. Past time.

    I agree. The supporters of these people who stay on too long don’t do them any favors. She’s had a very good public career. Why she wants to ruin a whole legacy by not letting go is beyond me.
    The seats really aren’t about them. They seem to forget that.

  17. 17.

    tobie

    April 21, 2023 at 3:03 pm

    If Feinstein retires, and Newsom names a Democrat to replace her (which he will), can Dems appoint a new member to the Judiciary Committee? This would be different than merely replacing her on the Judiciary Committee while she still served out her term. What arcane rule would/could the GOP cook up to prevent a new committee member if Feinstein really gave up her Senate seat?

  18. 18.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 3:05 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    I get tired of it being made so personal. She’s a public servant and no one, no one, is irreplaceable. If she wants that kind of deference she could have worked in the private sector and started her own company. The seat doesn’t belong to her and being a trailblazer doesn’t mean you get to harm the whole political project on your belated way out the door. All her supposed admirers can now watch her destroy her own life’s work. With friends like those…

  19. 19.

    delphinium

    April 21, 2023 at 3:09 pm

    @sdhays: But in the interim, why can’t DiFi, who is a multi-millionaire, rent a lovely apartment near Capitol Hill and have herself wheeled in for critical votes?

    That’s what I was wondering-is there any way to get her to DC, have her vote on the judicial nominees (which doesn’t require much) and then retire after those votes? If she cannot even manage that, then yes, time to step down now.

    And I hope in the future that 80-90 year olds aren’t put on such critical committees.

  20. 20.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 21, 2023 at 3:09 pm

    @Baud: Very contagious.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 3:12 pm

    Isn’t Grassley on Judiciary? Why doesn’t he get sick? He’s old.

  22. 22.

    opiejeanne

    April 21, 2023 at 3:13 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Ro Khanna is like a shark smelling blood in the water. He needs to shut up, and I think only Katie Porter declared her candidacy before Feinstein announced her retirement. Adam Schiff was patient and respectful about the matter.

    There is a third candidate, the excellent Barbara Lee, but the complaint against her is that she is pretty old too.

    I don’t live there any more so, alas, I can no longer vote in California. I know who I’d give my vote to, of the three.

  23. 23.

    Chris

    April 21, 2023 at 3:13 pm

    @Kay:

    The seats really aren’t about them. They seem to forget that.

    RBG’s “my final wish is that I not be replaced until the election is over” was just…  This isn’t a seat at your country club, damn it.  In a very real sense, it’s not even your seat.  It’s a public office that tragically, the bad guys have every right (you could reasonably argue every obligation) to fill as quickly as possible.

  24. 24.

    Dangerman

    April 21, 2023 at 3:13 pm

    @trollhattan: It’s always excruciating to work at a place headed in the exact wrong direction. I know.

    It’s my specialty. Might as well change my name to Corrigan.

  25. 25.

    Frankensteinbeck

    April 21, 2023 at 3:14 pm

    Would that be a “dramatic break from precedent” like robbing President Obama of a SCOTUS pick after Scalia took a dirt nap

    It’s harder than it looks.  Much, much harder.  McConnell is a special kind of demon.

  26. 26.

    John Revolta

    April 21, 2023 at 3:15 pm

    Democrats keep getting surprised when the Repubs pull yet another dirty trick to fuck us over. Surely, they wouldn’t blow off YET ANOTHER long-established normal courtesy to stop us doing a thing!

    It’s total fucking war here and we’re still bringing a tea set to a gun fight.Cripes.

  27. 27.

    bbleh

    April 21, 2023 at 3:17 pm

    Looks like Feinstein really is the indispensable woman she imagines herself to be, at least for the next year and change.

    Depends.  If she actually can come back in time and vote, then true.  But if she can’t or won’t, then she should resign, because the worst that could happen is what’s gonna happen in her absence anyway.

    @eversor: They fired their IT security department?!?  Do they depend on their systems at all, for anything?  Like, any sort of contact with the outside world, or any data, or processing of it, on their customers or suppliers or personnel or accounting?  (Yes it’s a rhetorical question: who doesn’t?)  If so, do they have the slightest idea the gigantic risks they are running, starting back then?  OMFG.

    I don’t think I’d bother suing them unless it’s for a huge gob of money: it probably won’t be worth the headache, and if this is how they run the place, they may not be in business long enough to pay anything out anyway! And in any case, there may not be a more in-demand profession right now than IT security, except maybe certain nursing skills.  Hell, take your whole team with you; a team that has already worked together has added value.

  28. 28.

    Old School

    April 21, 2023 at 3:17 pm

    @tobie:

    What arcane rule would/could the GOP cook up to prevent a new committee member if Feinstein really gave up her Senate seat?

    According to the TPM article, the appointment of senators to committees are typically agreed to by unanimous consent at the beginning of each new Congress.  A replacement would have to be done through a new resolution.  Though unprecedented, senators could technically refuse a resolution and block filling an empty committee seat.

  29. 29.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 3:17 pm

    @John Revolta: I’m going to let this play out before starting the usual Dem bashing that the Internet is famous for.

  30. 30.

    opiejeanne

    April 21, 2023 at 3:19 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: And that demon was back in the Senate this week. Drat.

  31. 31.

    RaflW

    April 21, 2023 at 3:19 pm

    Democrats should be going after Thomas hammer and tongs. And pushing as many new judges onto the bench as possible.

    With plenty of respect for her past, the Honorable Sen. Feinstein needs to retire promptly. And yes, I understand that procedurally there is little that can officially be done. But if very cautious Rep. Dean Phillips of MN can respectfully call for her retirement, then c’mon, the water is safe for a critical mass of calls to fete her into here sunset time.

  32. 32.

    Geminid

    April 21, 2023 at 3:19 pm

    @opiejeanne: Ro Khanna’s a jerk.

  33. 33.

    Kelly

    April 21, 2023 at 3:20 pm

    @trollhattan: I had my first Shingrix shot Monday. I’m happy to report the only problem was a sore spot at the injection site. I haven’t been in a hurry to get Shingrix since I’d had the earlier shot, Zostavax.

    Why the hell hasn’t Sen Feinstein had a shingles shot? Zostavax has been available since 2006.

  34. 34.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 3:20 pm

    @Chris:

    Don’t get me started. And the months of denials by her fans that she coud have stepped down timely and let Obama appoint a replacement.

    Obama. The most gifted Democratic politician in 50 years knew exactly what would happen: 

    When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined President Barack Obama for lunch in his private dining room in July 2013, the White House sought to keep the event quiet — the meeting called for discretion.
    Mr. Obama had asked his White House counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, to set up the lunch so he could build a closer rapport with the justice, according to two people briefed on the conversation. Treading cautiously, he did not directly bring up the subject of retirement to Justice Ginsburg, at 80 the Supreme Court’s oldest member and a two-time cancer patient.
    He did, however, raise the looming 2014 midterm elections and how Democrats might lose control of the Senate. Implicit in that conversation was the concern motivating his lunch invitation — the possibility that if the Senate flipped, he would lose a chance to appoint a younger, liberal judge who could hold on to the seat for decades. But the effort did not work, just as an earlier attempt by Senator Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who was then Judiciary Committee chairman, had failed. Justice Ginsburg left Mr. Obama with the clear impression that she was committed to continuing her work on the court, according to those briefed.

  35. 35.

    Betty Cracker

    April 21, 2023 at 3:20 pm

    @tobie: Not without Repub cooperation, unless all the senators quoted have it wrong. Graham and Cornyn pinkie-swear they’ll allow Dems to replace Feinstein if she resigns, but they can’t be trusted.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 3:21 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Plus, you’d still need 7 more Republicans.

  37. 37.

    VFX Lurker

    April 21, 2023 at 3:23 pm

    @Baud:  I’m going to let this play out before starting the usual Dem bashing that the Internet is famous for.

    Same here.

  38. 38.

    Chris

    April 21, 2023 at 3:24 pm

    @Kay:

    I was already pissed but then I looked back through her life and found that her first cancer diagnosis was in 1999.  And she insisted on hanging on until 2021.

    I don’t even know what the words are for that level of hubris.

  39. 39.

    opiejeanne

    April 21, 2023 at 3:25 pm

    @Kay: Oh please, do you really think the outcome would have been any different after Yertle the Turtle wouldn’t let Obama’s nomination for the SC come up for a vote? We didn’t have the majority in the Senate until after she had died.

  40. 40.

    opiejeanne

    April 21, 2023 at 3:26 pm

    @VFX Lurker: Me too. They’ve done well working with what they had, and they’ve accomplished a lot.

    Shingles is a nasty disease and maybe she’s too sick to be moved right now. It may even kill her.

  41. 41.

    Gravenstone

    April 21, 2023 at 3:27 pm

    @Old School: Fine. She resigns, is replaced by Newsom and her replacement sworn in. If they are not seated, then the Democrats yeet a Republican off the committee through majority vote and restore the Democrats to majority status on that committee.

  42. 42.

    John Revolta

    April 21, 2023 at 3:27 pm

    @Baud: I’m not known for doing this. But sometimes………. I mean, tell me it ain’t true!

  43. 43.

    Kelly

    April 21, 2023 at 3:28 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: deleted. I’m wrong

  44. 44.

    HumboldtBlue

    April 21, 2023 at 3:29 pm

    @tobie:

    can Dems appoint a new member to the Judiciary Committee?’

    Not without 60 votes I believe.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 3:31 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    We didn’t have the majority in the Senate until after she had died.

    That’s not true. Republicans regained the Senate in 2014, so were a majority in 2015. That’s why Leahy and then Obama met with her and tried to convince her to retire. They knew we would lose the senate and Obama would lose the chance to appoint her replacement.

  46. 46.

    Chris

    April 21, 2023 at 3:32 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    Literally in the post you’re responding to: Obama raised this issue in 2013, before the 2014 midterms, when we still controlled the Senate, precisely because of the 2014 midterms, because he didn’t want us to end up with our back to the wall after they took back the chamber.

    We had the Senate from 2008 to 2014, and plenty of people at her level were already raising the alarms back then.  The idea that RBG’s responsibility to retire only kicked in in 2014 is convenient, but wrong.

  47. 47.

    Geminid

    April 21, 2023 at 3:32 pm

    @RaflW: Dean Phillips has a gadfly, grandstanding side. He said last year that Democrats needed to move on from Joe Biden, that he’s too old. Biden is old, but there are a lot of advantages to incumbency, not the least of which is avoiding a divisive and expensive primary.

    I think people must have told Phillips to shut up, because he shut up.

    Personally, I think public calls for Senator Feinstein to resign serve no purpose but to attract attention to the politicians making the calls, and score points among the “Do Something” crowd.

    If Feinstein resigns from outside pressure, it will come privately from Senators like Patty Murray, and from Governor Newsom. And of course, President Biden. That will come soon, and I think Feinstein will do the right thing.

  48. 48.

    Old School

    April 21, 2023 at 3:33 pm

    @Baud:

    Is shingles contagious?

    Sort of.  It looks like it transfers as chickenpox.

    If you have shingles, direct contact with the fluid from your rash blisters can spread VZV to people who have never had chickenpox or never received the chickenpox vaccine. If they get infected, they will develop chickenpox, not shingles. They could then develop shingles later in life.

    The risk of spreading VZV to others is low if you cover the shingles rash. People with shingles cannot spread the virus before their rash blisters appear or after the rash crusts.

  49. 49.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 3:34 pm

    @Chris:

    It’s kind of tragic. They’re going to erase everything she did on the court. Again- with “fans” like hers she didn’t need enemies.

  50. 50.

    eversor

    April 21, 2023 at 3:34 pm

    @trollhattan:

    I’m poking about a couple defense contracts my friends work on to show up at and do the IT job.  It’s six figures pay and solid work so who knows.  Plus my friends know me well enough that I can tell them to go get fucked and they won’t care.  Though I should probably make less of a habbit of telling people to get bent.  Or you know, stay with my Navy brothers, where telling someone to get fucked is met with laughter.

    Where I was screwed up so massively it leaked PII (social security numbers and medical records) that I had to hold a meeting and then I got canned.  I don’t know how this happens as PII is a huge IT issue but oh well.   Then they didn’t make me sign an NDA and when we were all frog marched out I mentioned this and that I was not legally bound to stay silent, cause I didn’t sign shit, and they should pay us and make us sign off, and they freaked out.

    Unlucky for them I have a military budy who went to law school and works a top 3 firm.  So I have sushi with exactly the person to contact to cause a fucking shit show for them.

    They were also too stupid to cut off all our access before hauling us all down so god knows what happened.

    It was all moronic!

  51. 51.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 3:42 pm

    If Ginsberg had resigned, the swing vote moves from Kavanaugh to Roberts.  Roe would still have been overruled, but more incrementally.  It’s too bad people were manipulated into thinking that they could take Hillary for granted in 2016 and also that the GOP gained seats in the Senate in 2018 when we had a wave in the House.  But maybe we’ve learned some lessons.  Maybe.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 3:45 pm

    @Baud:

    Because people in power must bever be held responsible for their decisions- instead all power rests with the voters, who, incidentally, have the least individual power.

    I just don’t know where this thinking ends. Is there any set of circumstances where an adult politician is responsible for his or her actions. or is all voters?

  53. 53.

    eversor

    April 21, 2023 at 3:45 pm

    @bbleh:

    We raised a few warnings about various things and got push back on them.  I promptly told those objecting where to shove it.  My objective is strictly protecting PII and banking information along with some classified things.  I do not, and will not, answer to other parties.  This is stated in my job description.  My job was entirely protect private data for legal, ethical, and national security issues.

    I like my job.  I love my job.  I’m a computer geek at heart.  I got started in this by crashing the middle school computer lab with Doom 2 Death Match.  I learned Linux and Unix by age 14.  So I don’t take shit from people.

    They fucked up and leaked PII and then shit canned us and blamed us.  As nobody had to sign an NDA and the associated go away payment they are on the hook.  Which means I can, and will, sue the hell out of them just to cause a scene.  And I know just the friend to call for it!  Who might be busy with work, but will get a blast out of nuking assholes into the ground.

  54. 54.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 3:48 pm

    @Kay: Yes, the power in a democracy rests with the voters.  Our voters have struggled with accepting that idea, which is the biggest reason for all of our problems.*

    I’m also not going to castigate someone for not predicting their death six years in advance.

    * The GOP understands this, hence voter suppression.

  55. 55.

    Roger Moore

    April 21, 2023 at 3:48 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    I guess I would make a fine distinction between the rules privileging some positions and the system actually being broken.  Yes, it’s bad that the rules are set up to privilege sparsely populated states at the expense of densely populated ones, but that has always been true.  What is really different now is that even the positions privileged by those rules can’t get anything done.  The Senate can’t do basic things like passing a budget and approving (or rejecting) nominees.  That’s because the Republican party has been taken over by nihilists who want to burn the whole system to the ground.  That’s the difference between an unjust but functioning system and a truly broken one.

  56. 56.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 3:49 pm

    @Baud:

    And, again, your view was not shared by President Obama and Senator Leahy. They believed appointing a younger liberal justice was worthwhile and mattered and they’re pretty good at politics! If they believed all was lost anyway and it would just be “incremental” why did they work so hard to try to appoint someone else?

  57. 57.

    RaflW

    April 21, 2023 at 3:51 pm

    @Kelly: She might have had Zostavax. My doc said, on prescribing Shingrix which was in stock a year ago, something like “Yeah, Zostavax doesn’t work that well.”

  58. 58.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 3:52 pm

    @Kay: I don’t know how hard they worked.  The reporting printed upthread just said they suggested the possibility to her.  So what?  It’s not a surprise that Obama and Leahy would want to mark their legacy by appointing her replacement.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 3:52 pm

    @Baud:

    She was ill since 1999. When she announced she was no longer receiving cancer treatment everyone knew she was no longer receiving it because there was nothing further anyone could do. Hence, Obama and Leahy’s pleas.

  60. 60.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 3:53 pm

    @Kay: Why don’t you hate on Justice Marshall too? He could have hung on and we wouldn’t have Thomas.

  61. 61.

    WaterGirl

    April 21, 2023 at 3:53 pm

    @Kelly: Like birth control, Shingrix isn’t 100% effective.  I imagine that she got the shots but was in the unlucky % that gets it anyway.

  62. 62.

    The Moar You Know

    April 21, 2023 at 3:54 pm

    I had my first Shingrix shot Monday. I’m happy to report the only problem was a sore spot at the injection site. 

    @Kelly: I had zero problem with the first one.  I seriously thought about calling an ambulance for about a half hour, four hours after I’d had my second.  I was flat on my ass for two days.  I’m glad I did it, though.  I have family members who’ve had the shingles.  The nicest description was “like being stabbed in the face for six weeks straight”

  63. 63.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 3:55 pm

    @Baud:

    Feinstein should stay on forever, whether she can do the job or not. You can tell Democratic voters they didn’t get judges because we were busy protecting a “trailblazer” who no longer comes to work.

  64. 64.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 3:56 pm

    @Kay: Well, she’s already retiring so “forever” is out of the picture.  And I am more than happy to “blackmail” voters by talking about the importance of judges and justices.

  65. 65.

    Betty Cracker

    April 21, 2023 at 3:57 pm

    Huh. Just saw this on WaPo, which I missed yesterday:

    Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) on Thursday invited Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to testify at a public Senate hearing next month on ethics rules governing the Supreme Court as part of what Durbin said is a needed conversation “on ways to restore the Court’s ethical standards.”

    Glad that long overdue conversation will finally happen!

  66. 66.

    Roger Moore

    April 21, 2023 at 3:57 pm

    @Baud: ​
     

    Is shingles contagious?

    Not really. Shingles is the result of reactivating a dormant chickenpox infection. So you can give someone chickenpox, which might eventually lead to shingles, but you can’t give them singles directly. I would assume Graham had chickenpox when he was younger, so he is at risk of developing shingles, but there’s no guaranteed trigger.

  67. 67.

    Kelly

    April 21, 2023 at 3:59 pm

    @WaterGirl: I forget that everyone reacts a little differently to medicines. I’m one of those fortunate folk where everything works with minimal side effects.

  68. 68.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 4:00 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Also

    Two Democratic lawmakers want former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to clarify certain aspects of the Supreme Court’s investigation into last year’s the leak of the draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.
    Chertoff was tapped by Chief Justice John Roberts to review a report compiled by the marshal of the court. In a new letter obtained by CNN Thursday, the Democrats said that “several aspects” of the investigation seemed “anomalous.”
    The letter, penned by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia, listed several questions ranging from the role of Chertoff ‘s own firm in approving certain aspects of the investigation, and whether actions taken “correspond with standard investigative technique.
    …
    They asked him to describe whether the investigation into the justices differed in any way from the investigation into other Supreme Court personnel in “time sequence and manner” and whether there was an “investigative basis” for treating them differently. They asked if any statements were taken from justices and if there is any record kept of such statements.

  69. 69.

    bbleh

    April 21, 2023 at 4:00 pm

    @eversor: lol well if there’s entertainment value in it, then by all means!

  70. 70.

    Cacti

    April 21, 2023 at 4:01 pm

    I remember when I was called ageist here for saying 85 year olds shouldn’t be running for additional Senate terms.

    With age comes wisdom…to a point. Past that point with age comes rapid physical and cognitive decline.

  71. 71.

    Fake Irishman

    April 21, 2023 at 4:01 pm

    One thing that should be said here: yesterday Judiciary approved six nominees to move out on to the floor for votes. There are 24 nominees on the floor currently.  The senate has already confirmed 21 nominees this year.

    Not having the 11-10 majority is bad, and will block a few really good nominees. However, volume matters too, and things have been moving through reasonably well.

    (and Graham is a weasel, but he has very quietly voted to advance the vast majority of Dem nominees out of committee since 2021)

    Also, we’d rather have this happen with a 51-49 majority than a 50-50 split.

    Finally; Biden nominated some one for the open fifth circuit seat with the(I believe) support of Cruz and Cornyn. It won’t fix the lawless joke that court has become, but it will improves the odds a bit for the good guys. (And the last appointee from Biden to the Fifth circuit sailed through last year)

  72. 72.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 4:02 pm

    @Fake Irishman: Thanks, I was wondering about the numbers.

  73. 73.

    Cacti

    April 21, 2023 at 4:03 pm

    @Baud: RBG’s plan to just live forever after two bouts of cancer was really solid and well thought.

  74. 74.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 4:05 pm

    @Baud:

    Judges are important but not important enough to replace the senator who no longer comes to work.

    That’s our message to voters, I guess.

  75. 75.

    Betty Cracker

    April 21, 2023 at 4:06 pm

    @Fake Irishman: Good to know there’s not complete blockage — thanks!

    I believe Durbin did note that the Dems on the committee would like to look into Clarence Thomas’s corruption but can’t do that until they have a majority again, so that sucks.

  76. 76.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 4:07 pm

    @Cacti: I’m not going to continue argue about RBG. People who want to hate her should just hate her. It’s their prerogative.

     

    @Kay: Voters should just stay home until the Prince Charming party comes to woo them. They shouldn’t have to settle.

  77. 77.

    Fake Irishman

    April 21, 2023 at 4:08 pm

    @Baud:

    yeah, trading Marshall for Thomas was were the tipping began to happen. If he’d thought the Dems had a chance in 1992, he may have tried to hang on. John Paul Stevens safely retiring at 90 was the one we got lucky on.

    O’Conner was unlucky. She was trying not to retire around Rehnquist, and made the decision to step down to take care of her husband who was suffering from dementia but could still be at home. Then Rehnquist died and her husband declined very quickly and needed to go to a nursing home.

    She was a partisan Republican, but that court looks a lot different now if she’s on it in 2009-2014 (no citizens United, no Shelby,  ACA mediciaid expansion to all states, no hobby lobby, no Hudson and it’s union busting progeny etc)

  78. 78.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 4:09 pm

    @Cacti:

    I’m rapidly coming around to age limits and honestly I feel like they did it to themselves. I would prefer they make reasonable, reality-based decisions themselves. but since that seems to be off the table- let’s get some rules.

  79. 79.

    Fake Irishman

    April 21, 2023 at 4:09 pm

    @Baud:

    wikipedia keeps nearly real-time tabs on it. Just google search Biden judges. Ballotpedia and the ACS also have tallies and updates.

  80. 80.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 4:11 pm

    @Fake Irishman: Thanks.

  81. 81.

    Fake Irishman

    April 21, 2023 at 4:11 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    No problem, and you’re right about the lack of sopena power, it sucks.

  82. 82.

    Cacti

    April 21, 2023 at 4:12 pm

    @Baud: RBG’s hubris fucked the country. This is objectively indisputable at this point.

  83. 83.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 4:12 pm

    @Cacti:

    We may get a reciprocal situation with Clarence Thomas. The only way he leaves that seat is if he dies- not a moment before. I think Republicans are starting to get an inkling too- he’s going nowhere, no matter his physical or cognitive health.

  84. 84.

    Roger Moore

    April 21, 2023 at 4:16 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    I believe Durbin did note that the Dems on the committee would like to look into Clarence Thomas’s corruption but can’t do that until they have a majority again, so that sucks.

    IMO, this is the real sticking point.  The last thing the Republicans want is for anyone to start looking too closely at Supreme Court ethics.  They’ve caught Thomas with his hand in the cookie jar, but I’m guessing some other justices have cookie crumbs all over their robes.  They know how important the Supreme Court is to all their plans, so they really don’t want multiple conservative justices mired in ethical scandals.

  85. 85.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 4:16 pm

    @Kay: We had a reciprocal situation with Scalia. Kudos to GOP voters for taking the initiative and not kvetching about it.

  86. 86.

    Cacti

    April 21, 2023 at 4:17 pm

    @Kay: I can’t imagine Clarence leaving any way but feet first.

  87. 87.

    Citizen Alan

    April 21, 2023 at 4:18 pm

    @Chris: So she lasted 22 years after her diagnosis and would have been replaced by Biden if she’d made it just another 3 months? And that is your definition of hubris?

  88. 88.

    Joseph Patrick Lurker

    April 21, 2023 at 4:18 pm

    Would that be a “dramatic break from precedent” like robbing President Obama of a SCOTUS pick after Scalia took a dirt nap, allegedly on the grounds that the presidential election was coming up a year later? And then turning around and ramming through an extremist nominated by Trump when Americans were already voting in an election that would kick Trump to the curb?

    The article explains that GOP committee members Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn made mouth noises about following precedent and filling the vacancy if Feinstein resigns, but nobody in their right mind would trust either of those grinning, hypocritical vipers. Looks like Feinstein really is the indispensable woman she imagines herself to be, at least for the next year and change.

    As horrible as the Republican party is today, the reason that we’re in this mess is because Diane Feinstein is a selfish fucking asshole. If she truly gave a damn about this country, she would have retired 6 years ago. Fuck Feinstein and all of these geriatric assholes in the House and Senate who want to cling to their seats right up until they drop dead. We need term limits for members of Congress and also need to set an age limit.  It’s time to destroy this goddamn motherfucking gerontocracy.

  89. 89.

    patrick II

    April 21, 2023 at 4:18 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    The Senate has run mostly on a “gentlemen’s agreement” largely outside of the actual senate rules.  Like any civilization most of what people do daily are not governed by rules, but by social understanding.  Those unspoken agreements broke down before the civil war as the stakes became higher and they are breaking down now as the old south with its fascist enablers reasserts itself.

    Just, as an example, there is no explicit rule in the Constitution that the Senate has to take a vote on a president’s Supreme Court nominee, but it certainly is implicit in a civilized reading of the Constitution. McConnell broke that unspoken rule and stole a seat on the Supreme Court.

    You cannot write a rule to cover every contingency.  At some point we all must count on social, and in this case, congressional mores to get things done.  And they are breaking down.

  90. 90.

    Cacti

    April 21, 2023 at 4:19 pm

    @Kay: When the Constitution was written, the average life expectancy was 38. I don’t think the founders ever envisioned the US government as a gerontocracy.

  91. 91.

    Citizen Alan

    April 21, 2023 at 4:20 pm

    @Geminid: To be fair, I would probably also join the crowd of people saying we should move on from Joe Biden and that he should retire immediately if he came. Down with shingles and spent three months in the hospital while the entire executive branch was paralyzed without him.

  92. 92.

    Chris

    April 21, 2023 at 4:21 pm

    @Citizen Alan:

    No, rolling the dice for 22 years when you had a solid 6 in which you could retire is my definition of hubris.

    But you knew that already, of course.

  93. 93.

    Citizen Alan

    April 21, 2023 at 4:22 pm

    @Kay: True. But the same thing is going to happen to anthony kennedy. And all of the legal principles associated with him are going to be overturned by 2 of his law clerks, one of whom replaced him.

  94. 94.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 4:23 pm

    @Citizen Alan: We have an amendment that prevents Executive Branch paralysis in the event the president is incapacitated.

    It’s too soon to say if the Judiciary Committee will suffer from a long term paralysis.

  95. 95.

    tobie

    April 21, 2023 at 4:24 pm

    @Old School: Thanks for the explanation. Our best hope then is that Feinstein can get to DC and, if nothing else, turn up for votes and then leave.

  96. 96.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 4:25 pm

    @Cacti:

    I think the Harlan Crow buy offs might be a long term plan to get him off. Do the big shrine in his home town, tons of lavishly paid speaking fees. put him on boards, ect. EEEASE him out of there and pick a 40 year old wingnut.

    When they were begging Breyer to retire they had to really brainstorm a package he might accept- they knew he liked France so it included some easy job in France but I don’t think he took it.

    Something horrible has happened to our federal judges. They seem to think they are royalty. I blame lawyers. We really exaggerated the brilliance and indispensible nature of these people. There are a lot of smart lawyers. Not hard to find replacements.

  97. 97.

    Citizen Alan

    April 21, 2023 at 4:25 pm

    @Baud: I always suspected that Marshall stepped down when he did because Bush senior was riding on a 97% approval rating after the end of the Gulf war,. And everyone assumed he would be reelected. That’s why so many of the big names from the late eighties Democratic Party set out the 1992 election and Bill Clinton came out of nowhere to take it.

  98. 98.

    trollhattan

    April 21, 2023 at 4:27 pm

    “Boomski and Kaboomski,” a short play in two acts. As we see Russia bomb Russia the first thought is “Not so bad, lucky for that car it didn’t hit directly while they were passing,” but we’re not done.

    https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1649318357538045953?cxt=HHwWgoCw6diTx-MtAAAA

  99. 99.

    Suzanne

    April 21, 2023 at 4:28 pm

    @Cacti:

    I can’t imagine Clarence leaving any way but feet first. 

    Proposal: ACCEPTABLE.

  100. 100.

    patrick II

    April 21, 2023 at 4:28 pm

    @Cacti:

    That number is misleading because so many very young people died of various diseases that are now treatable or preventable.  Once you made it past 30, your life expectancy was pretty long.  Look at the ages of our founding fathers.  Most, except those shot in a duel, lived fairly long lives.

  101. 101.

    Roger Moore

    April 21, 2023 at 4:29 pm

    @Joseph Patrick Lurker:

    I disagree about term and age limits.  Age limits are a bad idea just because different people age differently.  Some people are still fit for office when they’re 80; some are too old when they’re 60.  Term limits are even worse, because they put a limit on how experienced legislators can get, even though legislating is a job where experience is incredibly important.  Practical experience says that term limits wind up taking power from our elected officials and giving it to unelected, unaccountable lobbyists, staffers, and bureaucrats.

    What we need is to get over our reluctance to talk about aging.  People need to be able to say someone who’s 85 years old and showing signs of massively slowing down shouldn’t be elected to a 6 year term without getting shouted down.

  102. 102.

    Geminid

    April 21, 2023 at 4:31 pm

    @Citizen Alan: Yes, but that was not the case with Biden. The commenter refered to Dean Phillips’s caution, and I said he’s not neccesarily cautious in such matters. He is on policy

    But he is one of the 40 Dems who flipped Republican seats in 2018, so I’m basically on his side.

  103. 103.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 4:33 pm

    @Roger Moore: Did Feinstein’s opponent last time bring that up?

    If we’re going to talk about incapacity, we should talk about incapacity, not age.  Once you start talking about age, people will start to think in terms of a number rather than looking at the individual.

  104. 104.

    MomSense

    April 21, 2023 at 4:34 pm

    @Citizen Alan:

    The hubris was with the voters who couldn’t be arsed to vote for Democratic candidates for President knowing damn well that the Courts are always in play.

  105. 105.

    tobie

    April 21, 2023 at 4:34 pm

    @Roger Moore: @Joseph Patrick Lurker: Term limits all but ensure seats will be bought. Every cycle lobbyists would settle on a favorite candidate and fund them to the hilt to get them elected to serve their interests. Experience & record wouldn’t count for naught in a term-limited govt. It’s a preposterous idea. I don’t know why it keeps coming back. I guess it fits with the sentiment, “They’re all crooks.

     

    ETA: I’m talking about term limits for elected office. I haven’t thought about what this would mean for judicial appointments. Influence peddling a la Federalist Society would likely go through the roof.

  106. 106.

    Steve in the ATL

    April 21, 2023 at 4:37 pm

    @Kay:

    I blame lawyers.

    Rotating tag?

  107. 107.

    Cacti

    April 21, 2023 at 4:38 pm

    @patrick II: Not really. Making it much past your 60s was no guarantee even for those who survived to adulthood. Of the 56 signers of the declaration of independence, 24 died prior to age 70. And they were the upper class of their day.

  108. 108.

    Roger Moore

    April 21, 2023 at 4:38 pm

    @Cacti:

    When the Constitution was written, the average life expectancy was 38.

    That number is meaningless, because it includes very high child mortality.  It was perfectly normal for someone who reached adulthood to live into their 70s or 80s.  Ben Franklin was 81 when he participated in the Constitutional Convention.

  109. 109.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 4:38 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    It’s so much more dignified it one handles it oneself rather than waiting for it to become “an issue”. It only becomes undignified or disrespectful when it just isn’t grappled with. You have to deal. If you won’t, people will do it for you and some people aren’t nice and have ulterior motives.

    It’s always presented as this issue of dignity or control and it’s actually the way to NOT have those things because you’re forcing others to make the decision you won’t make.

  110. 110.

    brantl

    April 21, 2023 at 4:39 pm

    “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body”

    is Marketingese for shit-show.

  111. 111.

    gratuitous

    April 21, 2023 at 4:40 pm

    I remember McConnell holding Scalia’s seat on the Court open for a year with some disingenuous nonsense about the will of the people and not seating a replacement justice in an election year. Oddly enough, the entirety of the liberal media went along with this. Four years later, of course, the same situation obtained, and Amy Coney Handmaiden was seated in two weeks. McConnell’s rationale shifted to the sacrosanct need to have a full roster on the court, and the seating of a justice while the White House and the Senate were controlled by the same party overrode his previous nonsense rationale. The media once again followed that whiplash logic with nary a peep.

    I would assert that since the Senate and the White House are both in the hands of the same party, and because it’s not an election year, that Sen. Schumer should just name a replacement Democratic Senator to Judiciary, and start confirming judges like the country’s future depended on it. As we’ve seen, once a judge is confirmed, it’s well-nigh impossible to remove them, regardless of any anomalies in the process. Let the Republicans yowl, and remind the media of their craven acquiescence to McConnell’s shenanigans.

  112. 112.

    Cacti

    April 21, 2023 at 4:42 pm

    @Roger Moore: Not meaningless at all. Over 40% of the men who signed the declaration of independence didn’t make it to 70.

  113. 113.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 4:44 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Oh, God, yes. What lawyers have done to Supreme Court justices….I knew it was over the top even in law school, so at the beginning of my own brainwashing into The Brilliance Of Our Jurists. It didn’t stick, thank God. Justice Roberts was the smartest lawyer in the history of the world until Alito, who was even smarter. 

  114. 114.

    Jay C

    April 21, 2023 at 4:47 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    They know how important the Supreme Court is to all their plans, so they really don’t want multiple conservative justices mired in ethical scandals.

    IMO, assuming facts very much not in evidence: why would Congressional (mainly Senate) Republicans care a flying fart about SC Justices’ “ethics”? Their main (sole) expectation out of SCOTUS is to get judicial approval of their political/ideological agenda (and destruction of any legal bars to that agenda). Period.

    It’s the votes/decision that matter: if the Justices that sign off on them are “honest” or “crooked” is an irrelevancy, at best: as long the SC is an “independent” branch of government the GOPers aren’t going to care squat.

  115. 115.

    Brachiator

    April 21, 2023 at 4:47 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    I disagree about term and age limits.  Age limits are a bad idea just because different people age differently.  Some people are still fit for office when they’re 80; some are too old when they’re 60.

    I think that 76 should be the unofficial retirement age for most offices. In the next primary I probably will not vote for a candidate older than that. President excepted. In the general election I will vote for the Democrat, no matter the age.

    Term limits are even worse, because they put a limit on how experienced legislators can get, even though legislating is a job where experience is incredibly important.

    Agree with you on term limits. And of course in California, term limits for many political offices has resulted in a system in which politicians play a game of musical chairs. There are agreements about which office a termed out politician will next try for, and candidates for their old seats are sometimes former staffers or family members.

  116. 116.

    Ruckus

    April 21, 2023 at 4:49 pm

    Betty Cracker.

    The senate was the restraining body of the founders. It was intended to be of people of power in the senate so that the status quo of who was in charge would always be restricted from the common man. Joe Manchin would be not an unreasonable sample of this. Theoretically he’s on the liberal, fix the world side, but that’s not what he does. He’s old school, never change anything that’s working for the upper class monied fellas. Which is what he actually is. Monied and conservative, no matter the D behind his name.

  117. 117.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 4:50 pm

    But on March 14, 2022, in a surreptitiously taped conversation with a co-worker in her office on the top floor of one of Alaska’s largest public libraries, a different side of Eledge came out. As visitors waited in the lobby for a meeting with the city of Anchorage’s deputy library director, she lowered her voice to a whisper.

    Who is doing all this secret taping of Republicans and can we do more of it?

  118. 118.

    Paul in KY

    April 21, 2023 at 4:51 pm

    @Baud: In hindsight, he probably should have.

  119. 119.

    Steve in the ATL

    April 21, 2023 at 4:54 pm

    @Kay: I can’t wait for the first justice who got his JD at Cooley!

  120. 120.

    sdhays

    April 21, 2023 at 4:57 pm

    @Baud:

    I’m also not going to castigate someone for not predicting their death six years in advance. 

    I’m just tired of these people – any of them – getting to decide. They already decide what’s law and what isn’t, they shouldn’t be able to pick their successor (even if they fuck up and die first) too.

    The seat on the court is not their property (well, it shouldn’t be).

  121. 121.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 5:00 pm

    @sdhays: Whatever system you have, either the judge or someone else is going to decide when the judge should step down.  Even if you have term limits, there’s nothing to stop a judge from retiring early to allow the president to pick a successor.

  122. 122.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 5:01 pm

    @Paul in KY: I propose we replace foresight with hindsight in all of our decisionmaking.

  123. 123.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 5:02 pm

    @gratuitous:

    Great idea. They’ll never do it but I, for one, would love it.

  124. 124.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 5:06 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    I think our new young prosecutor, Rachel, went to Cooley. I don’t research them the way I used to because- who cares? We’ll either get along or not. This is about ME. Oh, and clients, whatever. I like her- she’s reasonable.

  125. 125.

    Lobo

    April 21, 2023 at 5:06 pm

    From a pure political perspective:  Abe Fortas resignation, Marshall not retiring sooner, RGB the same really hurt  and has lead to the current situation for better or worse.  Whether they should have done the opposite is a different question.     From a purely political impact today, things would have been different.  Republicans operate from the political and here we are.

  126. 126.

    Old School

    April 21, 2023 at 5:09 pm

    Sonia Sotomayor is 68 (turning 69 in June.)  Elena Kagan is 62 (turning 63 in a week – Happy early Birthday EK!).  Ketanji Brown Jackson is 52 (turning 53) in September.

    Should any of them retire this term?

  127. 127.

    delphinium

    April 21, 2023 at 5:12 pm

    @Roger Moore: Except being a senator is not like other jobs where you can just slide someone else in temporarily in the event someone is out long term; you are a representative for a large population of people and you need to be able to sit on committees and vote. A senator who is 80+ and still relatively healthy can go work somewhere else (they have lots of connections); there isn’t a reason for them to keep running for office. Personally, I don’t think having an age limit of say 70 (to be elected) is that out of line.

  128. 128.

    Old School

    April 21, 2023 at 5:15 pm

    @delphinium:

    A senator who is 80+ and still relatively healthy can go work somewhere else (they have lots of connections); there isn’t a reason for them to keep running for office.

    How about presidents who are 80+ and still relatively healthy?  Should they run for re-election?

  129. 129.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 21, 2023 at 5:15 pm

    as recently as the 90s, the Republican caucus included people like William Roth and Jim Jeffords. John Warner was considered a moderate-conservative. Alan Simpson could do a passable imitation of a libertarian. William Cohen resigned to serve in Clinton’s cabinet

  130. 130.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 21, 2023 at 5:18 pm

    @Lobo:

    Marshall not retiring sooner

    When Thurgood Marshall retired, the Republicans had controlled the White House for three terms

  131. 131.

    MomSense

    April 21, 2023 at 5:19 pm

    Chris Murphy was asked about this and he deflected to MIA Senate Republicans and men, but also said that he doesn’t think she should be replaced.

    What he didn’t say is that he is one of the Senators Republicans will talk to.

    I’m of the opinion that republicans will not respect precedent and they will stop Democrats from seating a replacement.

    When I hear Durbin and Murphy calling for her to resign then I’ll pay attention. I doubt that would ever happen though. Durbin would be more likely to negotiate the whole deal and when it’s well and truly settled Feinstein would announce it herself.

  132. 132.

    Sure Lurkalot

    April 21, 2023 at 5:20 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Age. Age is the greatest of these three risk factors. As noted in the Prevalence section, the percentage of people with Alzheimer’s dementia increases dramatically with age: 3% of people age 65-74, 17% of people age 75-84 and 32% of people age 85 or older have Alzheimer’s dementia.

    In addition to cognitive impairments other than Alzheimer’s and as a side effect from other ailments and medication. I’m a fairly healthy spry 68 but I’d be lying if I said I felt or thought the same as I did even 10 years ago on almost every level.

    It has been identified that Senator Feinstein suffers from cognitive issues and she’s currently battling a debilitating disease long term. She may very well live until 100 but that doesn’t address that she has been unable to perform her job functions and it is unknown if she can in the future.

    A much loved mentor of mine had a massive heart attack at work while he was in his 60’s. He had memory loss and never fully recovered but insisted on going to the office every day…his family couldn’t keep him from driving and his partners couldn’t ask him to retire. I saw him slip further and further away from his prodigious abilities and it will always bring me to tears that his whole person was so tied to the law firm he founded that he couldn’t back away no matter what. The last 3 years of his life was him realizing what he lost.

  133. 133.

    Kay

    April 21, 2023 at 5:20 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    We had a Toledo attorney in once for a probate case- city slicker! – and he was being funny about a rural district that was in the news because it had poisoned water. It is a bad district – just dirt poor. I was trying to get across to him with my facial expressions that he should stop, but he was on a roll and was ignoring me. Judges high school. That’s her district. She said “oh, are you a SNOB?”

  134. 134.

    raven

    April 21, 2023 at 5:23 pm

    @Roger Moore: I don’t need this on Friday afternoon!

  135. 135.

    Roger Moore

    April 21, 2023 at 5:24 pm

    @delphinium:

    The key point, IMO, is that it should be up to voters to determine if an elected official is too old to serve rather than a rigid set of rules.  For that to work, though, we need to have it be socially acceptable to include age and infirmity as part of the discussion of qualification for office.  I think we would all be better off if it were considered OK to do this.

  136. 136.

    Tom Q.

    April 21, 2023 at 5:26 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, the problem there was actually the opposite: unbeknownst to Marshall, what was called “the Republican lock on the White House” was just a year from being ended by Clinton.  Had Marshall realized this, I feel certain he’d have done anything he could to hold on.

    But, recall: Bush was riding those astronomical post-Gulf War approval ratings, and no one was suggesting GOP hegemony of the presidency was near an end.  So, we ended up with 3 decades and counting of a vengeful, backward Justice — now further revealed as fully corrupt.  Life hasn’t been especially kind to Democrats when it comes to the Supreme Court.

  137. 137.

    delphinium

    April 21, 2023 at 5:28 pm

    @Old School: ​
    That is up to Joe (just like running again was Feinstein’s choice) for now; and as others have noted, there is a VP who can step in in the event of incapacity. But yes, honestly, if age limits are ever instigated for senators, then that should also apply to the house and presidency.

  138. 138.

    zhena gogolia

    April 21, 2023 at 5:32 pm

    @raven: Depressing, huh? I come here to be cheered up and they’re just talking about being old.

  139. 139.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 5:34 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

     I come here to be cheered up

    Really?

  140. 140.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 5:35 pm

    Won’t link, but we can all be thankful that Breyer retired.

  141. 141.

    delphinium

    April 21, 2023 at 5:36 pm

    @Roger Moore: ​Okay, but how will voters determine that? Not everyone running for office is going to be so open about their medical conditions, and it’s not like all voters pay a lot of attention to candidates anyway. Having an upper age limit for office seems reasonable, much like there is already a lower age limit to be elected to office. And as in the case of dementia, someone can seem relatively fine at year 1 but really go downhill by year 5 (senate term).​
    ​
    ​

  142. 142.

    stinger

    April 21, 2023 at 5:40 pm

    @Joseph Patrick Lurker:

    Fuck Feinstein and all of these geriatric assholes in the House and Senate who want to cling to their seatsCalifornia voters and voters in some other states who keep voting for geriatric assholes right up until they drop dead.

    FTFY

    There are a LOT of people with agency in these situations. And I know all too well about geriatric senators!

  143. 143.

    zhena gogolia

    April 21, 2023 at 5:52 pm

    @Baud: Hahaha, “man of integrity”

  144. 144.

    Geminid

    April 21, 2023 at 6:02 pm

    @Geminid: I’m not very interested in what a Minnesota Congressman has to say about Diane Feinstein. Now, if Dean Phillips wants to talk about good ways to catch walleye, I’m all ears.

  145. 145.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 21, 2023 at 6:03 pm

    Can we fight about Eagleton stepping down next?

  146. 146.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    April 21, 2023 at 6:10 pm

    @Baud  @zhena gogolia:  [ I come here to be cheered up]
    This one is irresistable…

    Captain Renault : What in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca?

    Rick : My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.

    Captain Renault : The waters? What waters? We’re in the desert.

    Rick : I was misinformed.

  147. 147.

    Craig

    April 21, 2023 at 6:15 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: so that’s why she’s sitting in Pacific Heights.

  148. 148.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    April 21, 2023 at 6:17 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Found this the other day on YT. Zoomer humor meets Columbo

  149. 149.

    Cacti

    April 21, 2023 at 6:18 pm

    Worth noting that concerns about Feinstein’s cognitive ability were already an open secret months before the 2022 elections.  But her Dem colleagues still thought it appropriate to pretend everything was fine and give her a seat on the Judiciary Committee.

  150. 150.

    zhena gogolia

    April 21, 2023 at 6:27 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Cute! You cheered me up.

  151. 151.

    Eljai

    April 21, 2023 at 6:33 pm

    @Baud: I don’t think Feinstein’s opponent in the 2018 primary brought up age or incapacity.  California has a top-two system for primaries.  So, Feinstein’s opponent in the general was another Democrat:  Kevin de Leon.  And the California Democratic Party actually endorsed de Leon for the general.  But Feinstein still won by over 8 points.  So, really, we have the voters of California to blame.  I was living there at the time and I think I voted for Feinstein.  Oh fuck, it’s my fault.

  152. 152.

    NotMax

    April 21, 2023 at 6:35 pm

    FYI. Hoocuddanode*?

    Twitter once muzzled Russian and Chinese state propaganda. That’s over now
    *Trick question; answer is everybody who has been paying the least attention.

  153. 153.

    zhena gogolia

    April 21, 2023 at 6:41 pm

    This is five years old and I just discovered it, but I think it’s brilliant. A satire whose target is completely unclear.
    The Onion, “Trump Voter Feels Betrayed By President After Reading 800 Pages Of Queer Feminist Theory”:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpzVc7s-_e8

  154. 154.

    Elizabelle

    April 21, 2023 at 6:41 pm

    Friday afternoon. Hello jackals. I am getting a little nervous about what the Supremes might serve up in a few hours.

    We will prevail in the long run, but who know what the next few months and years will bring.

  155. 155.

    zhena gogolia

    April 21, 2023 at 6:42 pm

    @Eljai: I forgive you.

    Things are never so simple. Seniority influences people’s votes. As it should.

  156. 156.

    Ksmiami

    April 21, 2023 at 6:42 pm

    @Tom Q.: we have agency and if enough voters demand, we can cut off the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction

  157. 157.

    Princess Leia

    April 21, 2023 at 6:42 pm

    Stay from the SC pending appeal- but didn’t dismiss.​

  158. 158.

    zhena gogolia

    April 21, 2023 at 6:43 pm

    @Princess Leia: Good news, right?

  159. 159.

    Princess Leia

    April 21, 2023 at 6:44 pm

    @zhena gogolia: ​
      WOuld have been better if it had been thrown out! But yes, good. Thomas and Alito dissented.

  160. 160.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 6:45 pm

    @Princess Leia:

    It was never going to be thrown out on a stay.

    Thomas and Alito are the worst.

  161. 161.

    zhena gogolia

    April 21, 2023 at 6:45 pm

    @Princess Leia: Men of integrity.

  162. 162.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 21, 2023 at 6:46 pm

    Supreme Court issues stay.

  163. 163.

    Scout211

    April 21, 2023 at 6:46 pm

    @Princess Leia: No restrictions, so better than the appeals court stay.      

    BREAKING: #SCOTUS removes restrictions on abortion pill, undoing Texas & Fifth Circuit orders. Nos. 22A901 & 22A902. https://t.co/v6ijKU5lf6— Kimberly Robinson (@KimberlyRobinsn) April 21, 2023

  164. 164.

    Princess Leia

    April 21, 2023 at 6:47 pm

    @Baud: ​
      They really are.

  165. 165.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 21, 2023 at 6:47 pm

    @Princess Leia: That would never happen procedurally.

  166. 166.

    kalakal

    April 21, 2023 at 6:48 pm

    @Cacti:

    But her Dem colleagues still thought it appropriate to pretend everything was fine and give her a seat on the Judiciary Committee

    That’s a very good point.

    I’m with de Gaulle

    “The graveyards are full of indispensable men”

  167. 167.

    Baud

    April 21, 2023 at 6:48 pm

    @Princess Leia:

    Thomas didn’t explain himself. Alito’s opinion is petulant.

  168. 168.

    Elizabelle

    April 21, 2023 at 6:49 pm

    Sigh of relief.  For now.

  169. 169.

    Princess Leia

    April 21, 2023 at 6:49 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: ​
      I am not a lawyer…so that was a hope from my fantasy life.

  170. 170.

    Princess Leia

    April 21, 2023 at 6:49 pm

    @Scout211: ​
      Oh, Thank you for clarifying!! Yay!

  171. 171.

    NotMax

    April 21, 2023 at 6:50 pm

    Pre–weekend WTF story.

    Richard Glossip is almost certainly an innocent man. In the years since police first accused him of murder in 1997, the entire case against Glossip has completely fallen apart. His first trial was tainted by so much prosecutorial misconduct and so many procedural errors that the state judiciary threw out his conviction. His second trial was equally marred by false testimony and mishandled evidence. Republican state legislators have demanded clemency for Glossip, convinced he is innocent. His execution has been scheduled and called off seven times. Earlier this month, Oklahoma’s Republican attorney general, Gentner Drummond, even took the extraordinary step of asking the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate his conviction and death sentence, admitting that his second trial was “unfair and unreliable.”

    On Thursday, the court refused. In a unanimous opinion, the court waved away overwhelming evidence of innocence and decided that, actually, Glossip is guilty—and must be put to death on May 18.… Source

  172. 172.

    gwangung

    April 21, 2023 at 6:52 pm

    @Scout211: But still figuring out how to ban abortion without upending the entire pharmaceutical industry.

  173. 173.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    April 21, 2023 at 6:56 pm

    @gwangung: ​  This. As Thomas-Harlan Crow demonstrates, this court is bought and paid for and they won’t upset their paymasters by setting a precedent that allows a single judge to ban a multi billion dollar drug like OxyContin.​​

  174. 174.

    Elizabelle

    April 21, 2023 at 6:59 pm

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:   Yep.  That might make a marvelous campaign issue for Democrats, too.

  175. 175.

    Another Scott

    April 21, 2023 at 7:00 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Alito’s disingenuous claptrap shines through yet again.

    “The FDA could have just gone back to treating the drug as it did 22 years ago, no harm, no foul.”

    “The FDA did things that Congress didn’t specifically say that it could do.”

    “And anyway, the FDA could just do what it wants with the generic and it’s no big deal.”

    He’s not even trying to construct a sensible argument.  He still just wants to give RWNJs everywhere whatever they want, and break the ability of the Executive to use expertise and practicality to implement the laws that Congress has passed.  Instead, he wants to be a Super Legislator and rewrite all the laws he doesn’t like.

    He, and the rest of the RWNJs, needs to stay in his lane.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  176. 176.

    Another Scott

    April 21, 2023 at 7:03 pm

    @Baud: One might think that he thought Sonia was picking on him, and that he didn’t like that even one tiny little bit.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  177. 177.

    Citizen Alan

    April 21, 2023 at 7:05 pm

    @stinger:

    These are the committees Feinstein sits on or chairs after 30 years of seniority:

    Committee on Appropriations

    Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
    Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
    Subcommittee on Defense
    Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development (Chair)[a]
    Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
    Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies

    Committee on the Judiciary[b]

    Subcommittee on the Constitution (Chair)
    Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism
    Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights
    Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law[c]

    Committee on Rules and Administration[d]
    Select Committee on Intelligence[e]

    These are the committees that Alex Padilla is on after two years in the Senate:

    Committee on the Judiciary

    Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety (Chairman)[58]

    Committee on the Budget
    Committee on Environment and Public Works
    Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
    Committee on Rules and Administration

    Our system of government is premised in large part on the idea that if a politician serves his or her constituent well enough to get reelected, they deserve to accumulate more  power to use for the benefit of those constituents. Obviously, it often doesn’t work that way in practice, but keeping a Senator or Congressman who is clearly in decline in office even to the point that their faculties degrade is an unfortunate but hardly unexpected consequence of the system working the way it was intended. Thad Cochran (who’d been on Appropriations since Noah came out of the Ark) came closer to loosing his senate seat due to being insufficiently racist for GOP primary voters than he did from showing clear signs of dementia.

  178. 178.

    sab

    April 21, 2023 at 7:16 pm

    @Kay: Back in the eighties I knew a number of lawyers from Cooley and they were mostly okay. One of them was school leaver from UK who enlisted in the US Army, went to Vietnam, came back and went to community college, eventually Cooley, and he was utterly grateful fot the US giving him opportunities in life. He ‘s a big deal in the Kent County criminal defense bar last I heard.

  179. 179.

    karen marie

    April 21, 2023 at 7:20 pm

    @Kay:   US senators have such monumental egos, they all want to die in office.  See, eg, John Fucking McCain.

    I’m still mad at that motherfucker.  He purposely delayed resigning – even though he knew his death was weeks away – in order to block the people of Arizona from choosing his replacement.

    Feinstein can get stuffed.

  180. 180.

    Fair Economist

    April 21, 2023 at 7:21 pm

    @Citizen Alan: Marshall died only 4 days after Clinton was inaugurated, and over a year after he had retired. I expect he was pretty ill at the end, and find it hard to blame him for retiring when it looked like Bush was a shoo-in for re-election.

  181. 181.

    karen marie

    April 21, 2023 at 7:25 pm

    @Baud: He and Feinstein are the same age – he was born in September 1933, she was born in June 1933.

    I’d be willing to bet my entire life savings that Democrats will not hesitate to allow Republicans to seat his replacement on the judiciary committee.

    I’m running out of teeth to spit.

  182. 182.

    karen marie

    April 21, 2023 at 7:30 pm

    @Geminid: Feinstein will do the right thing

     

    Fact not in evidence.

  183. 183.

    Fair Economist

    April 21, 2023 at 7:36 pm

    @Old School:

    Sonia Sotomayor is 68 (turning 69 in June.) Elena Kagan is 62 (turning 63 in a week – Happy early Birthday EK!). Ketanji Brown Jackson is 52 (turning 53) in September.

    Should any of them retire this term?

    I think Souter had the right idea retiring at 70.

    We are more likely than not to lose the Senate in 2024, and given how American politics is going, unlikely to regain it for many years (would normally lose more seats in 2026, difficult post-second term election in 2028, then this cycle hell-map recurs in 2030, then we’ve *still* got to win which doesn’t happen every time). Very plausibly, it could be almost 10 years before we could confirm another Democratic justice.

    So yes, I think Sotomayor should retire this cycle and perhaps even Kagan. Doesn’t have to be *this* year; it’s not like with Breyer where delaying to 2021 risked losing the Senate to a heart attack in a red state Democratic Senator.

  184. 184.

    Sallycat

    April 21, 2023 at 7:44 pm

    One of the reasons, in addition to gerrymandering, that Florida’s legislature is so cravenly pathetic is term limits.  The IQ of the legislature took a nose-dive when term limits were implemented.

  185. 185.

    karen marie

    April 21, 2023 at 7:45 pm

    @trollhattan: Hilarious!

    It left a 20-meter (66-foot) -wide crater in the middle of a tree-lined avenue flanked by apartment blocks, damaged several cars and threw one vehicle onto a store roof.

  186. 186.

    James E Powell

    April 21, 2023 at 9:57 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    I would settle for one who went to a law school that had the word State in its name.

  187. 187.

    Gvg

    April 21, 2023 at 11:50 pm

    @Old School: we don’t have the Senate so no.

  188. 188.

    Darkrose

    April 22, 2023 at 12:26 am

    @Betty Cracker: She shouldn’t. No one wants to say it publicly , but she’s suffering from severe cognitive decline that’s not going to get any better. Her staff is propping her up and it’s ghoulish and awful. In the meantime, the largest state in the union, one that’s already badly served in terms of representation in the current Congressional structure, has one (1) senator for 39 million people.

    Feinstein has been a trailblazer. I’ve voted for her in every election she’s run in since 2004, when I moved here. But she’s not able to do her job, and she hasn’t been for a long time. She shouldn’t have run in 2018, but people convinced her that she’s indispensable. No one is. She’s hurting Biden’s agenda and she needs to retire gracefully before her legacy is futher tarnished.

  189. 189.

    Geminid

    April 22, 2023 at 3:37 am

    @karen marie: You left out the “I think Feinstein will do the right thing.” And I was talking about a situation where Gavin Newsom, Joe Biden and Senators like Patty Murray told Senator Feinstein it was time for her to resign.

    I could dunk all day on people if I chose to disregard context.

  190. 190.

    davecb

    April 22, 2023 at 9:53 am

    @eversor: Even if you signed an NDA, you have a right to make a report to the police, and to the appropriate level of the legislature in most non-communist countries (certain states in the US may differ)

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - Albatrossity - Flyover Country Spring 2
Image by Albatrossity (5/18/25)

Recent Comments

  • New Deal democrat on Sunday Morning Open Thread (May 18, 2025 @ 12:36pm)
  • wjca on War for Ukraine Day 1,178: Russia Commits Another War Crime in Sumy (May 18, 2025 @ 12:34pm)
  • moonbat on Sunday Morning Open Thread (May 18, 2025 @ 12:26pm)
  • New Deal democrat on Sunday Morning Open Thread (May 18, 2025 @ 12:24pm)
  • Jackie on Sunday Morning Open Thread (May 18, 2025 @ 12:23pm)

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
War in Ukraine
Donate to Razom for Ukraine

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Meetups

Upcoming Ohio Meetup May 17
5/11 Post about the May 17 Ohio Meetup

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Hands Off! – Denver, San Diego & Austin

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!