quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
Just think. In about 24 hours, someone’s life is going to be changed forever, if they can survive the next few months.

You talkin' about the liberals or the nominee?

quote:

Originally posted by Ackks:
Kethledge is the one McConnell wants,

Incorrect. McConnell has recommended Kethledge and Hardiman.

quote:

Originally posted by Ackks:
so I hope he isn't the pick.

Because you don't like McConnell and McConnell likes them? That's a myopic view, IMO. The dominant opinion of Kethledge is he's Scalia v3.

My guess is McConnell, feeling the pulse of the Senate, is thinking any one of the Final Four would suit, but they have to be confirmed. Preferably before the midterm election. With McCain an unknown, and Collins and Murkowski threatening to block anybody who they perceive might vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, Trump can't chose just whomever he wants and be guaranteed success.

He's a smart businessman. I suspect he'll chose someone he believes Senate Republicans will find hard to vote against, and whom even a few "red state" Democrats might be able to hold their nose and vote for if push came to shove. And I suspect McConnell has a good feel for that, his other flaws aside.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
He's a smart businessman. I suspect he'll chose someone he believes Senate Republicans will find hard to vote against, and whom even a few "red state" Democrats might be able to hold their nose and vote for if push came to shove. And I suspect McConnell has a good feel for that, his other flaws aside.

Yes.
Remember, the one really great thing McConnell has done is make sure Obama's election year nominee did not make it on the Supreme Court and Neil Gorsuch did. McConnell for once showed some cojones.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
Yes.
Remember, the one really great thing McConnell has done is make sure Obama's election year nominee did not make it on the Supreme Court and Neil Gorsuch did. McConnell for once showed some cojones.

By enforcing a rule BIDEN created, which no one wants to acknowledge... But yes, thanks Mitch.

quote:

Originally posted by stoic-one:

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
Yes.
Remember, the one really great thing McConnell has done is make sure Obama's election year nominee did not make it on the Supreme Court and Neil Gorsuch did. McConnell for once showed some cojones.

By enforcing a rule BIDEN created, which no one wants to acknowledge... But yes, thanks Mitch.

Enforcing a rule? It's not a rule, and Biden didn't create it. He merely suggested it.

Whatever we all think of Mitch, he did good. I will be forever grateful to him for standing strong that year.

I thought it was the Reid rule, named in honor of it's creator Harry 'the undertaker' Reid.

But, I'm occasionally mistaken.

I am on the Giffords gun control email list apparently. The emails they have sent out in the last few days indicate that they are terrified of Hardiman. According to them, they think he’ll set gun control back a full generation.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
According to them, they think he’ll set gun control back a full generation.

The only time I have heard the word Extremist used in a postive way was when the WaPo called Hardimann a Second Amendment Extremist.

That is music to my ears, and calms my soul.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

Whatever we all think of Mitch, he did good. I will be forever grateful to him for standing strong that year.

This!

I am getting excited! Only 6 more hours to go.

Trump Settles on Supreme Court Selection, but Mum for Now

Allies of Judge Thomas Hardiman told to prepare for rollout of his candidacy; unclear what other candidate’s advocates have been told

By Peter Nicholas and Louise Radnofsky
Updated July 9, 2018 2:56 p.m. ET

President Donald Trump has settled on a nominee for Supreme Court hours before a scheduled announcement, as some advocates prepared for the rollout of Judge Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania.

Allies of Judge Hardiman said they had been told to be ready to start touting the one-time taxi driver’s blue-collar roots, in hopes this would resonate with Mr. Trump’s supporters. They also said they’d been told the judge was in Washington, D.C., for a conference.



https://www.wsj.com/articles/t...ion-nears-1531086183

The rest of the article....

Trump Settles on Supreme Court Selection, but Mum for Now

Allies of Judge Thomas Hardiman told to prepare for rollout of his candidacy; unclear what other candidate’s advocates have been told

By Peter Nicholas and
Louise Radnofsky
Updated July 9, 2018 2:56 p.m.

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump has settled on a nominee for Supreme Court hours before a scheduled announcement, as some advocates prepared for the rollout of Judge Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania.

Allies of Judge Hardiman said they had been told to be ready to start touting the one-time taxi driver’s blue-collar roots, in hopes this would resonate with Mr. Trump’s supporters. They also said they’d been told the judge was in Washington, D.C., for a conference.

It wasn’t immediately clear if backers of other candidates to replace the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy —chiefly, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, of the District of Columbia Circuit—had been told to prepare also.

Mr. Trump had reached the decision as of noontime in advance of a scheduled 9 p.m. announcement, a White House official said. About an hour later, the White House said that former Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, would guide Mr. Trump’s pick through the confirmation process in the role of “sherpa.”

Judge Kavanaugh had been an early front-runner, with the president’s chief decision makers noting his lengthy record of conservative judicial decisions, and it wasn’t clear that he had been ruled out of contention. But as late as Monday, White House officials believed that his ties to the George W. Bush administration, in which he worked, might have proved a liability with the president.

One official worried that Judge Kavanaugh, for example, would potentially face an embarrassing line of questioning during Senate confirmation hearings about his reactions to Mr. Trump’s tweets and statements criticizing the Bush presidencies.

Judges Amy Coney Barrett and Raymond Kethledge—both considered finalists for the nomination—were still in their respective home states of Indiana and Michigan, watchers said.

Mr. Trump has been wavering on the choice, and aides were unsure as recently as Sunday night where he would land. But people close to the search said that Judge Barrett’s chances seemed to be slipping, with White House officials shifting their focus away from her as the deadline for a decision neared.

Mr. Trump’s advisers said she might have more difficulty than her rivals in winning confirmation because of her outspoken conservative views. In academic articles, she has expressed unease with Roe v. Wade—the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that recognized abortion as a woman’s constitutional right. She also has supported the idea of high court justices overturning past precedent when they fundamentally disagree with it.

Mr. Trump has also voiced reservations about another candidate, federal Judge Raymond Kethledge, believing he didn’t show the sort of energy the president likes to see in his appointees, one person close to the White House said.

As a candidate for president, Mr. Trump famously derided one of his Republican primary rivals, Jeb Bush, as “low energy.”

“We are close to making a decision,” Mr. Trump said Sunday afternoon as he prepared to return to Washington from a weekend at his New Jersey golf club. “Let’s just say it’s the four people. Every one you can’t go wrong. I’ll be deciding tonight or tomorrow sometime by 12 o’clock, and we’re all going to be meeting at 9 o’clock,” he said.

The president’s decision process included a round of golf Sunday with friends such as conservative commentator Sean Hannity, the people familiar with the process said. Mr. Hannity didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“Trump would say, ‘I don’t want to be remembered in 20 or 30 years as having made big mistakes here. I want to do this right and I want to do this for history,’ ” said Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist.

Judge Kavanaugh had been a front-runner as late as Saturday, but the fact that Mr. Trump hadn’t settled on him suggested his front-runner status may have slipped by Sunday, several people familiar with the search said.

While some people close to the search said Judge Barrett’s social conservatism may spell trouble during a Senate confirmation vote, Mr. Trump was asking questions about her record Sunday morning, a person familiar with the search said.
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Her supporters—believed to include Mr. Hannity—said that while she has spent a short time on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, her body of academic writing should cheer conservatives, as should her ties to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom she clerked.

Mr. Trump has also faced a late push to pick Judge Hardiman, the official runner-up in his 2017 search for a successor to Justice Scalia that ultimately settled on Neil Gorsuch. Among his supporters are gun-rights activists, another person familiar with the search said. Mr. Trump called Judge Hardiman on Thursday after an initial interview Tuesday, a sign the judge, who sits on the Philadelphia-based Third Circuit Court of Appeals, was under serious consideration.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, one of the advocates for Judge Hardiman, said he spoke to him on Sunday night and talked about the judge’s unique situation as a finalist for a Supreme Court nomination twice in one year.

Judge Hardiman said “it was hard to complain,” Mr. Santorum said. “His point was, ‘I know a lot of other people who would not complain about the position I am in twice. It’s an honor,’ “ Mr. Santorum said.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/t...ion-nears-1531086183

My gut is that it’s going to be Hardiman, the other three are on deck for when RBG heads out.

Perhaps he was testing the waters with the 3? Of those, I think Kethledge is nominated for RBGs seat.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Incorrect. McConnell has recommended Kethledge and Hardiman.

I may have misread or I may be misremembering, but I thought that Senator McConnell said that those two would be the easiest to confirm. I take that to mean that either of those two would make his job of getting the nominee confirmed easier, not that he thought they’d make the best Justices. I’ve been wrong before though, more than once even.

Other rumors floating out there:



Which led to this:



Trump knows how to play the media, for sure! Just a few hours to go!

My few women friends really don't want Barrett, and some are enthusiastic Trump supporters. Trump will back off Barrett. Or not. Her nomination would be the ultimate liberal troll.

quote:

Originally posted by cne32507:
My few women friends really don't want Barrett, and some are enthusiastic Trump supporters...

Why?



.

Trump to expand the Court and nominate all THREE!

quote:

Originally posted by TigerDore:

quote:

Originally posted by cne32507:
My few women friends really don't want Barrett, and some are enthusiastic Trump supporters...

Why?

Women dislike other attractive, powerful women.