Trump trolls Democrats with Gorsuch pick

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and what’s left of his caucus until 2018 predictably refused to meet with the nominee. Protesters in front of the court got out their sharpies to fill in Gorsuch’s name for their prefabricated outrage posters. And college students in Berkley literally set fire to their school while metaphorically torching any remaining sympathy the country had for progressives still upset over the election results. All the while Democrats were conjuring the name Merrick Garland while hoping nobody would remember that it was Chuck Schumer who declared a full 16 months before the 2008 election that they would block any Bush appointee.

Perhaps the best example is the reaction from Hillary Clinton’s former opposition research arm, American Bridge. Bridge published a 77-page book on Neil Gorsuch filled with the sort of “he-drowns-puppies” hysteria one might expect, except as Ed Whelan has so delightfully pointed out, they got the holdings of several of the cases not just wrong but in fact the opposite of what they found so heinous. The disqualifying opinion, in at least one such case, was in fact authored by an Obama appointee to the court. Poor liberals! Donald Trump has them so turned around they aren’t even sure which side they’re supposed to be on anymore.

In the meantime, former President Obama’s top lawyer wrote that Gorsuch was “an extraordinary judge and man” who “brings a sense of fairness and decency to the job, and a temperament that suits the nation’s highest court.” Prominent liberal legal scholar Alan Dershowitz called him a “smart appointment” and “hard to oppose.” Much to the dismay of Chuck Schumer (sad!), liberals are coming out of the woodwork to say what a outstanding choice he is.

Even the media is left grasping for a whiff of scandal to hold onto. No, he didn’t found a “Fascism Forever” club in high school and, no, he didn’t want to ban military recruiters in college. Instead, editorial boards that almost universally declined to endorse the president find themselves fawning over Gorsuch.

What comes out of all of this is a simple truth: Democrats’ opposition to Neil Gorsuch has nothing to do with Neil Gorsuch and everything to do with who nominated him. Democrats have not yet come to terms with their stunning loss in November that not only cost them the White House but gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress. They woke up on Nov. 9th to find they were down to only 5 states under Democratic control — California, Delaware, Oregon, Hawaii, and Rhode Island. And, worse yet, Donald Trump was unapologetic about his victory.

The result has been a total meltdown of the Democratic Party that is now willing to take the federal government down with them. Currently, there are 11 unconfirmed Cabinet nominees waiting for an up or down vote after weeks of Democrat delay tactics and obstruction. At this point in a presidency, that’s more unconfirmed cabinet nominees than all previous presidents since George Washington took the oath of office 228 years ago — combined.

And now Democrats are faced with voting on “one of the most thoughtful and brilliant judges to have served our nation over the last century,” according former Obama appointee Neal Katyal. A judge every single Democrat voted to confirm to the lower court in 2006. The talking points aren’t working and the hysterics aren’t persuading anyone. The confirmation wars have reached their inevitable zenith and, in the worst sentence you can ever utter to a Democrat: Trump won again.

Sarah Isgur Flores is a Republican strategist and a graduate of Harvard Law School. Previously she was deputy campaign manager for Carly Fiorina’s presidential campaign.

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