R.I.P. Scout26
Late last week, Grassley decided not to honor a Senate tradition of holding up hearings for judicial nominees who aren't cleared by their own home state senators. That tradition is known as the "blue slip courtesy" born out of time before nationwide communication technology when a given state's senators had access to much more information about nominees than their colleagues from the rest of the country. Grassley correctly noted that Democrats were now trying to use the blue slips tradition to replace the filibuster, and he's having none of that. As recently as last month, the Democrats and much of the news media's punditry were expecting Grassley, who is no fan of the president, to keep the blue slip tradition in place. But Grassley gave Trump this very special gift instead.
While the fights with other senators like Flake et al may grab headlines, these judicial confirmations will have a much bigger impact. And unless the Democrats win control of the Senate in 2018, there's nothing they can do about it.
So keep your anger, folks, and make sure you don't let the 2018 election slide right by.Terry
being relatively civilized, I don't often wish for another's death. There are though, some on the SCOTUS whose obit would make for satisfactory reading. The Donald needs to put three more up there.
Trump has mentioned that he thinks 70% of federal regulations are unnecessary. And while he has made moves in the direction of repealing some he hasn't yet put a major push on. I'm thinking that he's waiting to seed the judiciary with judges friendly to deregulation before he starts his big push. So Grassley may have just made this a sooner than later thing and for that I thank him.
I don't know who said this, maybe Samuel Clemens, and I think my comment is a paraphrase at best: 'I would never wish someone to die, but there are obituaries that I wouldn't mind reading.'
Just one problem: Twain never said it. In fact, no one ever said it in precisely that form. Matt Blum at Wired has the fact-check: the quotation actually comes from Clarence Darrow, the lawyer of Scopes Trial fame. Here's a fuller version of the quote, which appears in Darrow's 1932 work The Story of My Life:All men have an emotion to kill; when they strongly dislike some one they involuntarily wish he was dead. I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/05/mark-twain-didnt-say-thing-about-obituaries/350238/
