Author Topic: McConnell guarantees Gorsuch will be confirmed on April 7  (Read 327 times)

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Offline mrclose

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McConnell guarantees Gorsuch will be confirmed on April 7
« on: March 28, 2017, 10:42:08 pm »


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Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed to the Supreme Court on April 7, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell guaranteed on Tuesday.

“He’ll be on the floor of the Senate next week and confirmed on Friday,” McConnell told reporters. “We are optimistic that [Democrats] will not be successful in keeping this good man from joining the Supreme Court real soon.”

The cagey Senate majority leader refused to say that he would do it via the “nuclear option” — a unilateral change in rules to kill the Senate’s 60-vote threshold on Supreme Court nominees. But McConnell also declined to rule out whipping 50 of his 52 members to change the rules if Democrats deny Gorsuch the required 60 votes to end a filibuster.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/when-will-neil-gorsuch-be-confirmed-to-supreme-court-236599

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Online Maj. Bill Martin

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Re: McConnell guarantees Gorsuch will be confirmed on April 7
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2017, 10:51:50 pm »
This is a big deal for a couple of reasons.

One is that there has long been a coterie of conservatives who say "there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats."  When McConnell said he'd hold up Garland's vote, those people said that McConnell was just posturing, that he'd cave after the election, etc.  That he was really in league with the Rats all along.    But he didn't, and Garland wasn't confirmed. 

Then they were convinced that he'd cave if the Democrats threatened a filibuster, and he'd force Trump to nominate someone much more liberal.  But he hasn't, and it sounds like Gorsuch is going to be confirmed, even if it takes the nuclear option.

That doesn't make McConnell a paragon of conservatism, but it does illustrate that there are significant differences between Democrats and Republicans overall.

The other reason is that it is going to get Gorsuch seated in time to participate in the last part of the term, which means he'll be able to hear some cases that will be based on some of Trump's orders if the Court decides to hear them.  That's a pretty big deal as well.