Thank You Mitch McConnell For Keeping Merrick Garland Off The Supreme Court
Garland’s weaponization of the FBI against parents shows, once again, that Mitch McConnell did the nation a great favor by keeping Garland off the Supreme Court.
Mitch McConnell did the nation a great favor by keeping Merrick Garland off the Supreme Court. But I repeat myself.
On June 16, 2021, I wrote, Mitch McConnell Did The Nation A Great Favor By Keeping Merrick Garland Off The Supreme Court:
Mitch McConnell likes to boast, including recently, that his most consequential achievement in his Senate career was keeping Merrick Garland from filling the Scalia seat after the death of the great conservative Justice….
Garland now is U.S. Attorney General. If there were a scintilla of doubt that McConnell did the nation a great favor, that doubt should have been put to rest on June 15, 2021.
On that date, Garland delivered an address on “violent extremism and domestic terrorism” that reflects an ongoing weaponization of federal law enforcement and national security apparatuses in a war not just on people who pose a credible and actionable threat of violence, but on people who pose an ideological threat.
Garland made clear that he was leading an all-government effort….
But the remainder of the speech suggested that promise would not be honored, including by enlisting Big Tech, which has well-documented ideological bias, in the effort:
…. The technology sector is particularly important to countering terrorist abuse of internet-based communication platforms to recruit, incite, plot attacks, and foment hatred.
Did you catch that? “Foment hatred.” Wait, didn’t he just say earlier in the speech that “hateful ideology” would not be the focus? To quote a great sage, “I’ll let you ban hate speech if you’ll let me define hate speech.” The government and Big Tech will be defining “fomenting hatred” in this all-government effort.
It’s pretty clear what is going on here. Team Obama, which weaponized the IRS against political enemies, is running the show, and the guy they wanted on the Supreme Court now is leading the charge at DOJ. Garland is a functionary in this regard, anyone Biden nominated for Attorney General would do the same. But we are much better off grappling with Merrick Garland as Attorney General for a few years, than with Merrick Garland for life on the Supreme Court. We don’t need a functionary on the Supreme Court.
This all-government effort will be abused, count on it. “Fomenting hatred” will be defined to include lawful non-leftist political opposition (as it already is on campuses). The ideological purge will make Lois Lerner blush.
Now Garland has proven again his unfitness not only to be Attorney General, but for the role he aspired to on the Supreme Court.
Garland issued a memo bringing together a law enforcement coalition to go after supposed threats to school boards from parents protesting Critical Race Theory teaching and Covid mask and vaccine mandates. Where is the evidence of widespread or coordinated violence such that a federal and state joint national effort is needed?
In fact, where is the evidence of violence at all? If there are isolated instances, local law enforcement is equipped and appropriate to deal with it.
What there is are angry parents voicing their opinions loudly, sometimes in the face of bullying from union-aligned school boards and administrators. That is constitutionally protected speech. But Garland knew that by bringing together a national coalition of law enforcement he was portraying protesters as the equivalent of terror suspects. This was an act of political intimidation, as Senator Josh Hawley correctly pointed out today while questioning the Deputy Attorney General:
.@HawleyMO: If this [Garland memo] isn't a deliberate attempt to chill parents from showing up at school board meetings… I don't know what is.
…You're using the FBI to intervene in school board meetings. pic.twitter.com/RT1f1mrwBL
— Abigail Marone (@abigailmarone) October 5, 2021
Whoever Biden was going to appoint to be Attorney General was going to be bad news. Garland is unfit, but no more unfit than other Biden nominees would have been. But at least we don’t have a terrible Biden AG and Merrick Garland sitting on the Supreme Court.
I know a lot of people like to rag on Mitch McConnell. But give the man his due, he spared the nation a generation of damage that Merrick Garland would have caused on the Supreme Court.
So I have no hesitation is saying:
Thank You Mitch McConnell For Keeping Merrick Garland Off The Supreme Court
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Comments
Now do his complicity with China.
I agree with the premise of your article though.
But here he is sending his storm troops into middle America to arrest us all
He voted to put the scum in the position he is in and did Cronyn and 14 other so called Republicans
I thank God we dodged Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court. That Mitch helped with that is great, sometimes he is good. Unfortunately a lot of time Mitch is not so good. All the GOPe said how great Merrick Garland would be as AG and look how that is turning out. Where is the pushback now to bring this to a political boil.
Lindsey Graham…..pulled the old “switcheroo” on we SC constituents.
Yeah, we may throw a lot of rocks at Mitch (some justified, admittedly), but picture for a moment the way the country would look with Hillary in the White House for her second term and Schumer being in charge of the Senate for the last five years.
On second thought, don’t. Not enough bleach in the world for that.
China Mitch didn’t stop shrillary form becoming president, Trump did it all by himself.
Right. China Mitch’s contribution was to stop Trump from being president.
McConnell (Kentucky, spit) didn’t stop Garland for any reason other than to let Shrillary make the choice. That’s it, full stop.
Garland is why the old (Republican) saw about a president being entitled to his nominees needs to be done away with.
Some checks and balances would be nice.
don’t lose both seats in Georgia, a seat in Arizona and give Biden basically a free pass to nominate and get confirmed the worst of the worst
Two sets in Arizona, really, Though between McCain and Flake one could easily argue we had lost them long ago.
Sneaky vicious little weasel sure didn’t and doesn’t belong on Supreme Court,
And the sneaky, vicious, little weasel certainly doesn’t belong in charge of the DoJ.
I could tell you where he belongs but it wouldn’t be nice.
When will Garland get involved with groups shutting down free speech on the colleges campus? Plenty of groups are openly harassed, and threatened with violence.
There are a treasure trove of people who he could openly investigate right now.
UNCONSTITUTIONAL
Chilling free speech is unconstitutionally infringing our our constitutional rights. The FBI should investigate Merrick Garland. How dare our elected leaders act to dilute rights our forefathers died to protect.
On a positive note – you know your hitting a nerve when the Progressives start weaponizing the FBI against you. I hope parent DOUBLE their efforts now in response to this attempt to silence them.
It’s not college campuses, now it is school board meetings. Pretty soon any complaint about government will be viewed as treason by the Biden Politburo and their KGB
Really? Mitch did us a favor? Tell that to all the people now in Garland’s cross-hairs for
persecutionprosecution.You had it right the first time. That downtick isn’t mine.
Mitch, Burr an the rest of the Senate knew the Russian collusion stuff was false from day one but sat on exculpatory information to hamstring Trump.
He also slow walked Trump nominees so that the guys running the “resistance” would not have any effective oversight, and recommended only quislings whom he knew would oppose the president for other positions.
He will never be forgiven for any of that and his participation in helping to effectively disenfranchise half the country to preserve his ruling class interests will be his legacy.
All of that aside, Mitch also voted for Garland to be appointed to his current position so it is pretty damned rich to be congratulating him for thwarting Garland when he helped empower him and praised him for having mainstream views.
He not only slow walked the nominees, Bitch McConnell kept the Senate ‘in session’ for FOUR YEARS specifically to deny Trump the ability to EVER make an appointment that the RINOs didn’t approve of.
He kept the seat open purely out of self-interest because he knew that if he confirmed the nominee the RINOs would have gotten thrown out en masse in the election.
Bitch McConnell doesn’t get credit for doing what every other conservative SHOULD have done in his place, particularly because he couldn’t wait to saddle up his RINOs and vote Garland in as AG by a landslide.
I’m tired of people saying we should give RINOs ‘credit’ for doing the bare minimum expected of them SOME of the time. McConnell spent 4 years actively fighting everything Trump was trying to accomplish.
I will not vote for a single person that intends to put Bitch McConnel back in as ‘leader’ of the Senate. He’s proven that he’s absolutely not to be trusted far too many times.
This entire family has swamp connections
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/10/05/ag-merrick-garlands-daughter-married-to-co-founder-of-company-selling-critical-race-theory-resource-material-to-school-districts/
Mrs Garland advises on election security issues, maybe that is why he so hands off.
In a reasonable world, this finding of corruption regarding the CRT business would get him fired as AG, without the possibility of reappointment to his seat as an appellate judge.
Your link doesn’t appear to be active at the moment so here is one from Zero Hedge on the topic. Panorama sells software to schools that basically data mines children then they repackage it and sell it to other schools along with social-emotional learning content and CRT-like drivel. Its is estimated that the company serves upwards of 1/4 of all public school kids in the country.
Garland’s son in law founded the company to monetize American school children. To date Panorama has raised over $100M in venture money including from Zuck.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/conflict-interest-ag-garlands-family-getting-rich-selling-critical-race-theory-materials
Mitch McConnell is a key part of what is wrong with The Swamp. HE LED THE GOP VOTES FOR GARLAND AS ATTORNEY GENERAL! What is worse? One of nine lame Supreme Court justices in the background or a Marxist totalitarian leading at the cutting edge? And how did so many Biden commie appointments get a pass?
He was also one of the main obstacles blocking Trump getting anything through Congress. There is so much more. This guy is NOT on “our” side!
I swear Professor, I just don’t understand how you can have such a huge blind spot on this guy. He’s as corrupt as anyone in DC. Ever.
McConnell is responsible for much, but the entire Republican party is to blame along with him.
I’ve said it before, and will say it again as often as n.n uses the word “select”: the Republican party is not us, and it is time for a new one.
It’s a perfect time for the TEA party to make a comeback.
It’s not just taxes we have had enough of. Governed Too Much Already needs a better acronym
It’s time for people like us to show up at school board meetings.
Maybe it’s time for grandma in tennis shoes to run for the school board.
Prof Jacobson,
McConnell is valuable for his parliamentary skill. The issue is his hesitancy to routinely apply that to move the priorities of the r base. He, Graham and others have refused to implement a bold policy agenda when r controlled the HoR, Presidency and Senate. They seem to prefer a strategy of losing gracefully, fundraising and impotent rhetoric about immigration and an out of control Federal expansion of power.
They will decry the debt and runaway spending but are happy to bring home misspent dollars to their States. They refuse to solve issues because that would impact their social standing in DC as well as imperial their fundraising and jobs for family members with rent seeking corporations.
Did McConnell make the left unhappy by his refusal to advance Garland’s SCOTUS nomination? Sure, he then supported his nomination to AG and many other highly partisan nominations for Biden. He resisted the implementation of much of the MAGA agenda. He involved himself in r primary contests and actively cost the r Sen majority by his intransigent refusal to pass the $2K stimulus pre election. Not only was this a motivating factor in both GA Sen losses it subsequently passed anyway when it could no longer be of help in retaining even one of the GA Senate seats.
A blind squirrel occasionally finds an acorn, I see no reason to laud McConnell for possession of the same ability. When chooses to use his power and knowledge consistently to advance the interests of the r base v his own political, personal and financial agenda I will be happy to reconsider.
I’m not sure he deserves any praise for being a broken calendar that gets one right every few years.
Thank you Public Works Director for not allowing raw sewage to enter the drinking water system.
Way to go! You did your job! Now have a Participation Trophy!
I think of McConnell like I do any other politician, since I have little use for any of them, I cheer when he/she does right and boo when he/she does wrong.
McConnell did great by the right with his fast tracking filling as many federal judge positions as possible. He’s great at things like that.
And for keeping that twerp Garland off the court I am grateful. Garland could have skewed it left for a generation.
I might not be thrilled with the reality of Trump’s second two choices, but they, no matter how disappointing, are so much better than Garland it isn’t even a contest.
I respectfully disagree on two grounds:
1) An indivdual’s performance as Attorney General is entirely different than the same individual’s performance as a Supreme Court Justice. In the former role, there is an expectation that the AG will work under the policy guidance of the White House and seek to actively promote the President’s policy priorities and agenda. In the latter role, the ideal is that the jurist will not be promoting any policy agenda at all.
2) Regardless of whether a judicial nominee is a liberal or a conservative, every nominee deserves a fair hearing before the Judiciary Committee and an up or down vote at the committee level. Otherwise, the nominees will be tried in the press and social media based upon rumor instead of a first-hand confirmation hearing and open process. The Senate Majority Leader does not have a Constitutional role in vetoing judicial nominees.
Confirmation of presidential appointees by the Senate is about as intrinsically a political process as there is, and McConnel and Schumer have everything to do with it. Judicial nominees aren’t entitled to and don’t actually deserve anything, certainly not in a legal or constitutional sense. The Senate is not a court of law, and they make up the rules for their own procedures and processes, all of it entirely within the scope of the constitution, which, for better or worse, is not terribly specific on the matter.
BTW I do agree with you entirely about the difference between the role of Attorney General and Supreme Court judge. But, having said that, contrast the way in which Barr as AG pushed back against outrageous requests from Trump, versus Garland seeming to be entirely on board with this politically motivated intimidation against protesting parents. Just a few critical remarks from Garland on principle, assuming he has the integrity and moxy for it, would make me feel a lot better about the guy.
McConnell is a card carrying member of The Swamp. Never done anything in his life other than politics, Has become extremely wealthy doing so. Yes, much of it is his wife, but that is how the Swamp rides. Not so much direct payoffs, but funneled through family. Sleepy Joe and Hunter (ten percent to the Big Guy), Jim Biden, Manchin and Heather Bresch. Bush II somehow the perfect CEO for the Texas Rangers. McConnell and Elaine Chao, etc. This list could go on forever.
Nomenklatura.
Having said that, he is an absolute master of the Senate. Maybe the greatest Majority/Minority leader since LBJ. (LBJ, as leader never had to deal from the Minority). Quite independent of whether or not you agree with what he is doing, he is a master of the game.
His tenure under Trump was masterful. He was as much a Never-Trumper as anyone, but he managed it beautifully.
McConnell is corrupt to the very core, an evil man. He should be in jail.
His tenure under Trump was nothing short of anti-American.
Agree. But I can acknowledge the skill of a pickpocket.
True enough.
I’d quibble on his being a master of anything other than leading the corrupt as their figurehead. But I get your point.
We don’t have a lot of great options at the federal level. No great champions of democracy and rationality to save us from ourselves. But if it’s a choice between Schumer and McConnel, I will take the lesser of two weasels.
McConnell caves again:
https://www.breitbart.com/news/senate-avoids-us-debt-disaster-votes-to-delay-borrowing/
Again snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I fully expect McConnell and his fellow swamp rats to cave on what will likely be a $20 trillion reconciliation and “infrastructure” bill after the accounting is complete. Wake up professor.
Garland was unfit for SCOTUS and is now using the DOJ to suppress speech and dissent.