Merrick Garland’s nomination was the dog that just never barked in the 2016 election. It was inside baseball that Republicans were, and nobody cared.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who made the decision not to bring Garland’s nomination to the Senate floor to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, doesn’t seem to have suffered for it. Shockingly, his Senate majority survived an election where it was supposed to die. And now Donald Trump will fill the vacancy, just as Democrats tried in vain to warn voters at one point during the election.