In a lot of ways, it doesn’t matter who President Trump brings with him down that metaphorical escalator tonight. He could just as easily nominate Judge Bret Kavanaugh as Judge Jeanine Pirro, just as easily give the nod to Judge Thomas Hardiman as Judge Dredd. No matter what, the reaction from the Left will be largely the same.
[Update: Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh to Supreme Court]
As a whole, the Left will entirely reject whoever Trump nominates. The nominee will be wholly unacceptable and nothing less than a threat to our democracy. It will finally and predictably be the long promised end of the world.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., served up a quick appetizer of the coming obstruction on the Senate floor. “It is near impossible that President Trump would select a nominee who isn’t hostile to our healthcare law and healthcare,” Schumer declared six hours before Trump said so much as the first letter of the nominee’s first name. Schumer thinks it impossible for Trump to pick a nominee “who isn’t hostile to a woman’s freedom to make her own healthcare decisions.”
Others, like Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Bob Casey, D-Pa., fell in line quickly promising to oppose a yet unnamed Supreme Court nominee.
It is part of a larger scorched Earth strategy where the duty to advise and consent takes a back seat to partisan loyalty. Even the most casual political observer knows not to expect more than a handful of Democrats to even consider voting yes. But it really is remarkable to just say no to a mystery justice.
The speculation will end in a couple hours. Judicial brackets will be broken. Celebration will begin in the conservative halls of the Heritage Foundation and the strategic offices of The Federalist Society. Everyone will know the name of the nominee when Trump interrupts their regular Monday night TV programming for a prime time announcement.
And so at 9 p.m. on Monday, everything and nothing will change in a moment. Everything will be different in that Trump will have nominated a second Supreme Court justice, changing the entire direction of the judiciary for at least a generation if they are confirmed. Nothing will be different in that just about every Democrat will curse the news because they hate the nominee already — whoever it is.
