Bring Out Your Dead!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist 

Tomorrow may be Columbus Day, a federal holiday, but that will not stop the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate from meeting in special session to rush through a nomination to the United States Supreme Court.  With just over three weeks remaining until the November election, an election which could turn Donald Trump out of office and restore control of the Senate to Democrats,  the Republicans are in full-on panic mode to get the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett before the full Senate so that she can be confirmed before their tenuous hold on power unravels.

The Republican strategy is to push ahead with the confirmation process - which begins with tomorrow's Judiciary Committee hearings - full steam ahead, and conversely, the Democrats will be looking for ways to slow or stall the process.

Amy Coney Barrett's nomination is the third that Trump has been able to make to the high court.  The first was made available with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia more than ten months before Barack Obama left office.  The GOP Senate, headed by Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, stole that nomination from the Democrats by refusing to move on the nomination of Merrick Garland, the judge Obama nominated to succeed Scalia.  The GOP rationalized that since Obama was in his final year in office, the seat should be filled by the in-coming president.

This year, of course, when Justice Ruth Boded Ginsburg passed away just six weeks before the November election, the Republicans broke land-speed records for moving to replace her, casting aside the rationale that they had carefully crafted to keep President Obama from appointing Scalia's successor.

The quick appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett was a dirty political maneuver, and for it to succeed things had to happen precisely and quickly.  Trump had to made a fast appointment, and he did (before Justice Ginsburg was even buried!) - and the Judiciary Committee had to meet and give Amy Coney Barrett a perfunctory hearing - which will start tomorrow and in all likelihood last just four days.

And tomorrow is a federal holiday - and the nation is in the middle of a deadly pandemic - and two members of the 22-member committee have tested positive for the deadly virus - and several others are refusing to be tested - and the show will start tomorrow morning regardless.

A week ago yesterday, on September 26th, Donald Trump held a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House in order to officially introduce Judge Coney Barrett as his nominee for the Supreme Court. Many GOP politicians attended that event, including several GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Less than a week later Trump announced that he and his wife had contracted coronavirus, and other prominent politicians began announcing that they were also infected.  It soon became apparent that the Rose Garden ceremony for Coney Barrett had been a "super spreader" event that was connected at least thirty-seven positive cases.

The coronavirus and its resultant disease, COVID-19, have been shown to be extremely dangerous for elderly people.  The two oldest members of the senate, Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Grassley, both 87, sit on the Judiciary Committee.  Also of the 22 members (12 Republicans and 10 Democrats), nine are over the age of sixty-five.

The two members of the committee who happened to be at Trump's Rose Garden event and have already tested positive for coronavirus are Mike Lee of Utah and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.   Several Democrats, including Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Kamala Harris (also a member of the Judiciary Committee), are calling for the entire committee to be tested, and yesterday GOP Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, a committee member, added her voice to those advocating for testing of committee members.

But a test for alll members might reveal something that could slow down the breakneck process to move Judge Coney Barrett's nomination to the Senate floor - and Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, is not about to let that happen.  Graham, who was sitting down front in the second row of the Rose Garden event (but wearing a mask), is himself refusing to be tested - as is ancient Chuck Grassley.

The youngest member of the current Senate, 40-year-old Josh Hawley of Missouri, a Republican, is also a member of the Judiciary Committee.  He, too, was at the Rose Garden event sitting on the second row.  Hawley was not wearing a mask during Trump's super spreader party.

Yes, some of the old farts sitting on the Judiciary Committee may be infected - and two, in fact, definitely are - and others may get sick, and it's even possible that some could die - but none of that is as important as getting another conservative on the Supreme Court.  With any luck at all the new Court could fulfill the conservative wet dream of the past half-century of reversing the Roe v. Wade decision which allowed women some control over their own bodies, and the new court might also deal a death blow to the Affordable Care Act and relieve more than twenty million Americans of their health insurance.

Taking health care away from millions of working poor in the midst of a deadly global pandemic!    It just can't get any better than that!  No wonder Lindsey Graham can't quit grinning!

The Republicans are still in charge!

Bring out your dead!

Bring out your dead!