Mitt Romney says he will support an effort to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg giving President Trump the 51 votes he needs to put forth a candidate. NPR. Romney released a statement saying that he would "follow the Constitution and precedent in considering the President's nominee" and would "vote based upon their qualifications." Two GOP senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, have already said that they will not support the effort to fill the seat before the election. Romney mentioned that historically Supreme Court vacancies were filled by a party when they control both the Presidency and the Senate, even if an election was looming. President Trump said he will announce his pick by Friday or Saturday.
My Comment:
I was worried about Mitt Romney. He has suffered a bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome since the 2016 primaries and he hasn't changed even though President Trump helped him win his seat in Utah. There was some fear that he would John McCain President Trump's nomination effort.
That doesn't seem to be the case here. It looks like Romney is going to confirm whoever the nominee is. It is probably just politics, Romney knows that he will likely lose his seat in Utah if he pulls any stunts. Voters have a long memory and I doubt they would forgive him if he betrayed them like this. John McCain had the advantage of a looming death and no further elections when he voted down repealing Obamacare. As far as I am aware Romney doesn't have that advantage.
Being the deciding vote might be an advantage for Romney. If he really wanted to pull a power move he could threaten to vote no if the right candidate isn't put forth. This would make him kingmaker and if he forces a vote on someone who isn't pro-Trump it could have major implications for the 2020 elections. Thankfully, I don't think Romney will pull this off for the same reasons he supports the candidate. He would be playing with fire if he didn't support the nominee or tried to force Trump's hands.
That being said, if I was President Trump I'd probably be giving Romney a call to thank him. Though the two men have their differences patching things up might make this thing a bit smoother. And if he can't do it himself he should do it through intermediaries. Though I still think Romney is a snake a little politics might help things out here.
As for any other defectors the only other ones appear to be Collins and Murkowski. I have always considered them Republicans in Name Only but I am guessing their real objection is their polling. I know Collins is up for reelection in what is supposed to be a blue state so the GOP might not object too much for them not supporting the effort.
The only other questionable Senator was Cory Gardner who has already announced he will vote to confirm. Gardner is facing a tough election against former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper but I think he knows that not voting for a replacement is going to hurt him more then voting in favor of one.
I do have to say that there is still a potential for weaseling out by Romney. He did say that he would vote based on qualifications which means he could end up betraying his base in the end. The good news that at that point it wouldn't matter. You only need 50 votes to confirm a justice and VP Mike Pence would have the tiebreaker.
It seems pretty clear that there will be another conservative justice on the Supreme Court. I don't see anything that the Democrats can do to prevent it. They have floated impeachment but I can't think of anything that would help Donald Trump more then yet another phony impeachment on the eve of an election. They could threaten to riot, but again, they are already doing that. They are pretty much out of options.
Which is why we are hearing rumblings of stacking the court once the Democrats win back the Senate and the Presidency. Arrogantly, the Democrats are assuming that will happen in 2020, which seems like a pretty big "if" to me. But if they do so, the effort will likely fail given how previous efforts in the past have failed as well. And if they succeed? Let's just say I don't like the countries chances of remaining peaceful if that happens...
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