The Biggest Winner: Senator Mitch McConnell Fred Barnes

[mystery-ak]

The Biggest Winner: Senator Mitch McConnell

    Fred Barnes

 November 9, 2018 at 3:11 AM

Republicans lost the House but held the Senate in the midterm election. That puts Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell in the catbird seat.

After a bumpy start, he gets along smoothly with President Trump. He doesn’t need the House to pursue his top priority, filling the federal courts with conservative judges. In the past two years, 84 have been confirmed to lower courts and 2 to the Supreme Court—an impressive record.

Democrats were slow to react as the White House, McConnell, and Chairman Chuck Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee built a political juggernaut for nominating and confirming judges, most in their 40s and early 50s.

Now Democrats are terrified as they watch the courts slip away. They ought to be. It takes only a simple majority to confirm a federal judge, and the election made that task easier. Republicans added two or three new senators. This allows for some slippage.

But they may not need any. “It’s a simple fact that there isn’t much Republican consensus on a legislative agenda,” David French writes in National Review. “There is enormous consensus and resolve around the federal judiciary.”

McConnell hasn’t even finished the parade of nominees for this year. More will be voted on in the lame duck session of Congress next month. Chances are, they’ll be approved. Republicans have a multitude of young conservative jurists, law professors, and lawyers with dazzling résumés to choose from.

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https://www.weeklystandard.com/fred-barnes/the-biggest-winner-senator-mitch-mcconnell

[Snarknado]

The judiciary was my #1 priority, and Trump/McConnell have exceeded my expectations. #2 was immigration, and although I had hoped for more, I take comfort in knowing things would be much worse under Clinton. Tax reform was good for the economy though I was disappointed by lack of relief for seniors. Anyway, the judiciary progress is by far the most important because it can't be undone as easily as immigration and taxes. The wall is a great idea in theory, but the next dem president's first action would be to demolish it.