Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Nuclear Option Karma

November 21, 2013 the Senate votes, at the urging of then Senate Leader and all time obstructionist Harry Reid to adopt the Nuclear Option, which is a change to Senate procedural rules reduce the number of votes necessary to override a filibuster from a super majority of 60 votes to a simple majority of 51 votes. Conjecture suggests Democrats want this change to stack the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals which has been historically conservative and one of the least overturn Circuit Courts with liberals so that when the ObamaCare challenge is heard by the court it will rule for ObamaCare. Republicans complain Reid's political hackery will come back to haunt the Democrats, but they approve the procedural change on a partly line vote, claim this is but a minor change because the scope is limited and does not apply to Supreme Court nominees.

King v. Burwell is argued before the 4th Circuit May 2014. The question Burwell asks the court to affirm is whether the clear and specific language in ObamaCare requires states to implement an ObamaCare exchange as a prerequisite for its residents to receive ObamaCare subsidies as thirty-eight Attorney's General believe it does and the lower court who originally ruled that it does. The big problem for Obama and liberals is if the lower court's ruling is upheld, this will render ObamaCare even more useless than it already is. Liberals counter argument rides on the interpretation of a collateral statement that most everyone else says is of little consequence. It is a vague ambiguous statement liberals are blindly holding onto because, well the greater good of healthcare is at stake. Because of Harry Reid's procedural change, the 4th Circuit has been stacked by Obama. Where before conservatives outnumbered liberals, the tide has turned and now liberals outnumber conservatives. Just as Reid had hoped, the newly reformed court reverses the lower ruling upholding the clear plain language. Harry Reid is smiling, convinced this Nuclear Option has been achieved its goal of protecting ObamaCare. Meanwhile Republicans are mad as hell.

Justice Roberts comes through for Obama once again as the Supreme Court upholds the 4th Circuits reversal. Charitably some say Justice Roberts votes on ObamaCare cases were cast as a way to protect the Supreme Court from the backlash of an unfavorable ruling. Less charitable folks, the author herein included, call Roberts a coward and a traitor.

February 13, 2016 Justice Antonin Scalia's dies unexpectedly. Conservatives are extremely worried. Obama has a little under 9 months left before the end of his reign of Muslim / liberal extremism and the cornerstone conservative of the Supreme Court needs to be replaced. Obama previous nominees have been partisan liberal hacks, intellectually vapid. Another liberal will tip the court liberal for at least a generation, perhaps two. Two months later Obama nominates Chief Judge Merrick Garland from the DC US Court of Appeals. With just a bit under seven months remaining in Obama's tenure, liberals push hard for the Senate to hold confirmation hearings for Judge Garland. Vice President Joe Biden demands the Senate hold confirmation hearings and claims Republican obstructionism is unprecedented. Uncle Joe completely forgets his speech saying President Bush should not offer a nominee during an election year saying the right belongs to the next president.

Fast forward to President Trump's election and Trump's nomination of Judge Neal Gorsuch to the Supreme Court to replace Justice Scalia. Democrats are in a tizzy, they are mad as the dickens at Hillary's loss, they are mad at the Senate Democrats for failing to get Merrick's nomination to the Senate floor for discussion, and they are threatening to block Judge Gorsuch's nomination even though the Senate had recently unanimously confirmed Gorsuch to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Saying liberals like Chuckie Schumer, Fauxcahontas Liz Warren, comedian Al Franken and others are hypocrites to challenge Judge Gorsuch's nomination now, Senate Republicans threaten to extend Reid's Nuclear Option to Supreme Court nominations.

As all this played out across the news, conservatives were concerned mealy mouthed Senator Mitch McConnell who had caved to numerous liberal demands while he was the Minority Leader would continue to cave to liberal demands and they are afraid he will buckle under the liberal's onslaught and cave to liberal' demands to shelve the extension of the Nuclear Option to Supreme Court nominees as reparations for Conservatives blocking Obama's nominee Merrick Garland.

Rumors swirl. Mitch will cave. No he will not, Yes, he will. In the end, Mitch rises to the occasion and delivers Gorsuch's confirmation.

Ain't Karma grand?

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