Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s appearance at today’s Road to Majority conference was devoted in part to gloating about his having blocked President Obama’s final Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, from consideration by the Senate so that President Trump would be free to nominate Neil Gorsuch from the list of judges pre-approved by the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society.
The depth of gratitude among the Religious Right for McConnell’s theft of that Supreme Court seat was evident in Ralph Reed’s introduction, in which he called McConnell “a gift to the United States of America” and “one of the most distinguished public servants who has served in the Senate in our lifetimes.”
With characteristic lack of shame, McConnell slammed the Democratic Party’s “rabid left-wing base,” which he said “can’t get over the results of the election.” Democrats, he said, are engaging in “blind obstruction” and “total opposition.” McConnell, of course, masterminded the Republicans’ unprecedented obstructionism when Barack Obama was president, declaring that his one goal during Obama’s first term was to deny him re-election.
McConnell said Trump is looking to fill all the vacancies on the federal bench with “Gorsuch-like nominees,” which will give Trump an impact “far beyond his tenure.”
Pundit Charles Krauthammer, who was interviewed by the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody on stage just before McConnell’s appearance, said he worried that Trump’s legislative agenda will be harmed by the ongoing investigations into his presidential campaign but called the Gorsuch confirmation “a fantastic achievement.”
“Given the age of some of the other members of the Supreme Court,” quipped Krauthammer, “I think another recall may be in order, so to speak, a divine recall.”
