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Thursday, October 11, 2018

Watching The Democrats Cave In

Today, the Senate voted to confirm 15 federal judges.  The total included three judges for the Courts of Appeals and 12 district court judges.  Also in the last 24 hours, two high ranking officials for the Justice Department were confirmed after waiting for almost a year.

Think about it.  For month after month, the Democrats have slow walked every judicial nomination put forward by President Trump.  The GOP has been pushing the confirmations despite these tactics.  Each judicial nominee was forced to face a filibuster by the Dems, then a cloture vote, then 30 hours of debate and finally a vote to confirm.  Suddenly, today the Dems agreed to confirmation of these 15 judges on a voice vote.  There was no filibuster, no need for cloture, no debate and just a vote for confirmation.

What had changed?  The answer is simple.  The Republicans were keeping the senate in session in order to get approval for these judges.  That meant that all those Democrats who are running for re-election had to be in Washington rather than home campaigning.  Suddenly, the idea of "resistance" had little appeal for the Democrats.  They opted instead for trying to save their own jobs.

It was just another demonstration of just how corrupt the process for confirmation has become.  All the platitude pumped out by the Democrats about the need for careful consideration of the judges was shown to be nothing but nonsense.  They didn't really mean it.  All they wanted was to delay and disrupt the senate.

Given the turn that the polls have taken since the Kavanaugh hearings, it is not surprising that the Democrats have been desperate to get back on the campaign trail.  Many of them are watching their election chances melt away. 

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