{"id":278821,"date":"2018-07-09T15:50:28","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T19:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/?p=278821"},"modified":"2018-07-09T19:47:46","modified_gmt":"2018-07-09T23:47:46","slug":"end-the-scotus-navel-gazing-vote-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2018\/07\/09\/end-the-scotus-navel-gazing-vote-next-week\/","title":{"rendered":"End the SCOTUS Navel-Gazing. Vote Next Week."},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Okay. This is Supreme Court announcement day, 9 o\u2019clock tonight President Trump will make his announcement. You ever noticed, folks, how the Drive-By Media these days spends more time talking about things that have yet to happen and then characterizing these things that have yet to happen as one thing or another? And it\u2019s happening more and more frequently.<\/p>\n

\"\"I have noticed this. Much and much of what gets reported as news is the media actually talking about things that have not yet happened, but that are scheduled to happen, and then the media starts precharacterizing what it all means before it\u2019s even happened.<\/p>\n

This Supreme Court justice pick thing, I have to be honest. It\u2019s kind of driven me a little crazy. I read conservative blogs, a few, and I read conservative — well, I read everything. I guess I shouldn\u2019t be surprised, but I have been at all the navel-gazing going on. I mean, it\u2019s not just the Drive-Bys talking about things that haven\u2019t happened. It seems like everybody\u2019s engaged in the analysis of who the pick\u2019s gonna be, and, if it is the pick, what\u2019s good about it, what\u2019s bad about it and, therefore, why it will or won\u2019t be the pick, and then do that for every person named.<\/p>\n

And you can go crazy trying to follow the maze. “Well, if it\u2019s Kavanaugh, yeah, be with could be Kavanaugh, but he\u2019s the only guy that went to Harvard and Trump likes that, but the guys got a long paper trail. This guy has written opinions for 12 years in the DC Circuit and elsewhere, he\u2019s got a million pages of stuff, the Democrats got a lot to pick through. Trump\u2019s not gonna give them that kind of opportunity. Well, we can\u2019t go Kavanaugh because Kavanaugh\u2019s Rove\u2019s guy. Kavanaugh dates all the way back to the Bush 43 administration. Trump\u2019s not gonna do that. He loathes the Bushes. So it\u2019s not gonna be Kavanaugh.”<\/p>\n

Well, then it\u2019s gonna be Kethledge. “Well, it can\u2019t be Kethledge \u2019cause Kethledge hasn\u2019t written enough, and we\u2019re not sure that Kethledge is pro-life.” This has been going on for two weeks. And nobody writing about this stuff has the foggiest idea what\u2019s gonna happen. And so everybody\u2019s just been occupying time and taking up space with all of had to predictive analysis before something even happens. And it\u2019s all part of trying to guess who it\u2019s gonna be so that when a nominee is chosen, whoever predicted it can rise up and say, “See? See? I knew, I told you so.”<\/p>\n

The way I look at this — and I think I used to be one of these navel gazers in a way. I think I used to get caught up in all of the ups, the downs, the pros and cons of each potential nominee and running through them. But this year I\u2019m doing something different. I\u2019ve boiled it down to a different take. Of the names mentioned — they all come from The Federalist society, and they all have to one degree or another the recommendation of all kinds of people I respect. Leonard Leo at the top of the list. The Federalist society members, they\u2019re all good, folks. Any one of these people — Kethledge, Kavanaugh, Amy Barrett — any of these people would be fine with me. I would be ecstatic with any of them.<\/p>\n

\"\"I think rather than the individual that is chosen — and you can disagree with this — but to me the important factor here is getting confirmed. And the soonest, because that\u2019s crucial. This has to happen before the Democrats get to go home for two months and campaign and start destroying whoever this nominee is.<\/p>\n

And the reason why this navel-gazing bothers me, I take you back to the January 2012 Republican presidential — it\u2019s a primary, and George Stephanopoulos asking Romney if states should have the right to ban contraceptives. And of course it wasn\u2019t even being discussed. It wasn\u2019t part of the Republican debate. It wasn\u2019t part of the Republican primary.<\/p>\n

And it took Romney by total surprise. Of all the things Romney and any one of the other Republicans prepped for, I guarantee you none of them had prepped for a question from the former member of the Clinton war room, George Stephanopoulos, asking if states should have the right to ban contraceptives. And Romney pretty much said that.<\/p>\n

But Stephanopoulos wouldn\u2019t go away. And he kept pushing and pushing, and finally Romney answered, and that was the end of it. Whatever the answer was, it didn\u2019t matter. They got Romney answering the question. So then an entire new War on Women news cycle was created with Romney suggesting that states ought to have the right to ban contraceptives. It\u2019s a states\u2019 rights issue, it was a constitutional issue, but it was easily manipulated into an issue of Romney hating women.<\/p>\n

And of course Romney behaved politely and civilly and with great manners and never objected to any of it, and so the process of destroying Romney began. And this is all we\u2019re gonna be hearing about for the next three months. Contraceptives, abortion, pro-life this, pro-life that, pro-choice here, pro-life there. What I think ought to happen, Grassley and McConnell should just schedule a hearing and a floor vote the week after Trump nominates whoever it is, next week, if it\u2019s Kethledge, if it\u2019s Kavanaugh, if it\u2019s Amy Coney Barrett, schedule the hearing and a floor vote next week.<\/p>\n

Schedule it for when the Democrats think they\u2019re going home to campaign. Do not let them get out of town to start campaigning and destroying whoever the nominee is before the hearings have even begun. We need to stop pretending today, right now, we need to stop pretending the Democrats are interested in good faith. We need to stop pretending the Democrats are interested in a legitimate investigation of a nominee\u2019s record. They don\u2019t care a whit about that. They\u2019re gonna lie about it. They\u2019re gonna expand upon it. They\u2019re gonna make it up if they have to.<\/p>\n

Why should we let the Democrats go home for several weeks and then have them hear from Soros and Tom Steyer and the NARAL people and all the Hollywood groups about how they better stay strong and fight Trump on the nominee? ‘Cause you know that\u2019s gonna happen. These Democrats are gonna go home, and they\u2019re gonna be hearing it from everybody. And in the process of trying to placate everybody, they\u2019re gonna start ripping this nominee, whoever it is. It doesn\u2019t matter who it is. That\u2019s why all the navel-gazing to me ki is a bit of an exaggeration. Because whoever the nominee is, the objective is going to be to destroy it.<\/p>\n

Now, there\u2019s a caveat to that. I\u2019m seeing in strategic places, such as the New York Times, a piece here by David Leonhardt: “This Is No Time for Liberal Despair.<\/a>”
\nThis is the third piece that I\u2019ve seen in the last seven days, which is written to liberals reminding them that the odds are very, very good that Trump\u2019s nominee is going to be confirmed because the Republicans have the majority. And if they stay unified, there\u2019s nothing democracy can do.<\/p>\n

\"\"And then over here you have these three red state Democrats — Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp and others — who might go back and forth and might end up supporting a nominee. But this is a third piece. One in the Washington Post, one here in the New York Times, I think another one at Slate or Salon or somewhere telling their readers this nominee is going to be confirmed and it\u2019s no time for despair, it\u2019s no time to start pulling your hair out. This nominee will be confirmed.<\/p>\n

The school of thought in these learned leftist circles is that this nominee doesn\u2019t really change the balance either. This is not a liberal judge retiring. This is Kennedy. And more often than not, they\u2019re saying he was in the 5-4 conservative majority. There were two great exceptions to that: gay marriage and same sex bathrooms, whatever the hell else. But those defections, if Kennedy had not made them from the conservative side, has got the liberals focused.<\/p>\n

So both sides are trying to plant seeds here that whoever Trump picks is gonna get confirmed. Now, if you believe that, if you think Trump is gonna get his nominee — and I happen to believe that that\u2019s gonna be the case — then put the best and strongest you got up there. Go for it right now. Others are saying, “No, no, no, no, no. Get somebody, get confirmed right now and then wait \u2019til the next liberal retires or something else happens and because that replacement, that\u2019s gonna be big.”<\/p>\n

This kind of navel-gazing is never, ever gonna end. But my point is that what has to happen is the confirmation process needs to start immediately. We control it. We won the election. We control the Senate. This nomination and confirmation process needs to start, it needs to be kept on pace, and it needs to be done so the Democrats have to stay in Washington, don\u2019t get to go home and start hearing it from everybody and start trashing this nominee because that\u2019s going to happen anyway.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let me tell you one other thing, folks — and this is really the big thing. The one thing above all else that really, really matters today is that Hillary Clinton is not making this selection for the next person to be the next justice the United States Supreme Court. Above all else, she is not the person making the selection. Just to keep this in perspective, as I say.<\/p>\n

And, by the way, there are 10 Democrat senators, not the three the media constantly refers to. There are 10 Democrat senators up for reelection in red states that Trump won handily. It\u2019s never talked about by the media because the media narrative is the Democrats are gonna retake the House, they\u2019re gonna retake the Senate, they\u2019re gonna impeach Trump and everything\u2019s gonna go back to normal. And I think the exact opposite is gonna happen.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think the Democrats are going to take back anything, contrary to media belief or anything else. The important thing here is to get going on offense on this confirmation hearing ASAP. Don\u2019t sit around and wait weeks and weeks to get this going for the nominee to stop off at every office in the Senate and start making small talk with these Democrat senators. It isn\u2019t gonna matter. Just get it going and done.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. I\u2019m getting a lot of emails. “Rush,” they\u2019re saying, “Rush, don\u2019t fall for these media people who are writing to liberals to give up, that this confirmation\u2019s already guaranteed, already assured, Trump\u2019s gonna get it. They\u2019re just setting you up, Rush. They want you to not pay as much attention. They want you to be overconfident.”<\/p>\n

No, no, no, no. Folks, that\u2019s not at all what\u2019s going on here. I\u2019ll tell you what\u2019s going on here. Like this guy David Leonhardt — and he spells it Leon-hardt. I\u2019ve never heard his name pronounced. I don\u2019t purposely mispronounce anybody\u2019s name unless I\u2019m making a very loving and comical parody of things, but I don\u2019t know if he pronounces it Leonhardt or Leonhardt. It could be just a different spelling of Leonard.<\/p>\n

But I wish I could remember the name of the other two. They are mainstream leftist journo names. And I think they see the handwriting on the wall. I think these guys are very, very worried, some of them are, at the public radical extremism of the left becoming the face of the Democrat Party. It\u2019s not gonna help them. I really think these pieces are being written to help anti-Trumpers come down off the ledge with a dose of reality.<\/p>\n

\"\"Now, this piece is called, “This Is No Time for Liberal Despair.” “Step one,” writes Mr. Leonhardt, “be realistic. Trump\u2019s nominee is overwhelmingly likely to be confirmed regardless of what actions Democrats take. Republicans hold the Senate majority, and every Republican senator \u2014 yes, including Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski \u2014 has a history of voting for judges like those Trump is considering. Collins and Murkowski have a script: They make centrist-sounding statements, to shore up their images,” and keep their base happy back home, “and then vote aye.”<\/p>\n

Shortly after Justice Anthony Kennedy retired, Fauxcahontas called the coming — he doesn\u2019t call her that. I\u2019m just making that up. “Senator Elizabeth Warren called the coming nomination ‘the fight of our lives.\u2019 It is not. The great political fights are still ahead. When a new justice is sworn in this fall, Democrats should not declare generational defeat or turn on each other. Step two: Don\u2019t lose hope.”<\/p>\n

Look, I\u2019m telling you, all the media narratives of how great the Democrats are doing and how poorly Trump is doing, it\u2019s the exact opposite. The polling data all favors Trump on all these big issues. His approval numbers are beginning to inch up. The economic numbers are irrefutably great, and the Republicans are gonna get this nominee. If they stay unified, it\u2019s a slam dunk. There\u2019s nothing the Democrats can do because Harry Reid nuked the filibuster! So there\u2019s nothing that they can do to stop this. And levelheaded Democrats understand this. And it probably is the case.<\/p>\n

Now, that doesn\u2019t mean that the Democrats aren\u2019t going to do the usual search, seek, and destroy mission on the nominee. They most certainly are, which is why I think next week after this name is announced tonight, bammo, just get started on the confirmation process. Everybody on the Republican side has stated the objective to get this done before the court begins its next term, October 1st, which is before the midterms, get it done.<\/p>\n

This is what winning elections means. Winning elections has consequences. So does losing elections. Winning elections, Trump gets his nominee. And I\u2019m telling you, any of the names that you\u2019ve heard, any of them are gonna be fine. When you start navel-gazing and trying to figure out the pros and cons of each nominee — like, let\u2019s look at Kavanaugh in this regard for a minute. The things that I have seen — and, by the way, as a powerful, influential member of the media, I am the target of much of this attempted influence.<\/p>\n

I see a lot of it. And I got a piece last week, “No to Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh is Rove\u2019s guy, and Rove is a Bush guy, and the Bushes loathe Trump. Kavanaugh is a setup.” Okay. I take it in, let it go in one ear, come out the other. This featured a picture of Karl Rove with his arm around the shoulders of Brett Kavanaugh showing them as big, good buddies.<\/p>\n

Now, the rip on Kavanaugh is that he supposedly thought that a mandate such as the one in Obamacare requiring people to buy a product, i.e., insurance, was perfectly constitutional. Another rap on Kavanaugh is that he was the guy that gave John Roberts the help on rewriting Obamacare to make it constitutional and therefore we don\u2019t want anybody like this.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Kavanaugh is probably, they say, the smartest, he\u2019s the most experienced, he\u2019s had the most time on the bench, he is thoroughly, full bloodedly conservative and all this. Then you get to Kethledge, well, he\u2019s been on the bench less, and therefore there\u2019s less written opinion, less of a target, smaller target, dead center, great Catholic pro-life.<\/p>\n

Then they get to Amy Coney Barrett, she\u2019s a problem, said the influence email, she\u2019s a problem. She\u2019s a member of this Catholic sect, and that\u2019s why Dianne Feinstein called her thick with the dogma. She\u2019s a member of this Catholic sect that says women are subservient, that men run the family and men run the houses and men run the rescues of kids in caves and that that won\u2019t fly today. And she\u2019s got seven kids and she\u2019s pro-life and impossible to confirm. You get inundated with this stuff. I\u2019m telling you, any one of these four or five names, I would be immensely happy.<\/p>\n

In the case of Kavanaugh and Roberts and Obamacare, when a judge has to decide a case and a judge follows the law in a specific case — I\u2019m gonna make something up just to give you an example. Let\u2019s say there is a case of an employee versus his employer. And the case is heard, and the judge ends up arguing for the employer based on the law. Well, somebody could come along and say, “See? This guy doesn\u2019t care about working people. This guy doesn\u2019t care about average America. He sided with the boss. He sided with the big corporate entity over this lowly employee.”<\/p>\n

Well, maybe that was the law. There\u2019s all kinds of cases the vagaries of which average Americans are never gonna know because they\u2019re not gonna read them, and when the law requires a certain rendering, it may conflict with a judge\u2019s chosen social preferences. That\u2019s the point. Judges have to follow the law, not implement their personal policy preferences. And from everything I\u2019ve seen, these four judges do that exactly.<\/p>\n

Now, has for Kavanaugh and the mandate and Obamacare — by the way, there\u2019s a rap on Kethledge that, “Don\u2019t be fooled by Kethledge. This guy totally disagrees with Trump on immigration.” So what? If Kethledge judges cases on the basis of law — and there\u2019s evidence that all of these people do — then their personal preferences here really don\u2019t matter. Well, we\u2019re talking about conservative justices, that\u2019s the point. If they\u2019re gonna follow the law, that\u2019s all you can ask of \u2019em.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the left that substitutes their personal policy preferences, their social, cultural preferences over the law. That\u2019s not what judges on our side are supposed to do. They follow the law, that\u2019s top of the bill for us. Sometimes in following the law, rulings are gonna appear to conflict with what they believe. Some people are gonna end up being unhappy, but that\u2019s just because of the evolution of what people think the court is.<\/p>\n

The court is the final authority, the court is where we go to settle the great arguments of who\u2019s right and who\u2019s wrong on all these cultural issues. No, it shouldn\u2019t be. The court\u2019s where you go to get the final answer on the law of something, the case that\u2019s there. But we know the liberal justices, they vote a bloc, and they vote liberal socialism as a bloc regardless what the law is nine out of 10 times.<\/p>\n

Believe me, the key here is to get done, get this started. Because you want this done as quickly as possible, especially if you believe these people on the left writing their people to calm down, this is not time to panic, Trump\u2019s going to get his nominee, if you believe that, then let\u2019s make it happen. Get going on it, make it happen, don\u2019t let them go home and campaign and start destroying these people with the media providing all the ammo and all the fuel, just get it done.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let me show you how stupid the Democrats are. Maybe I should say “hilarious.” There\u2019s a story out there today that Dick Durbin<\/a>, senator from Illinois, is suggesting that the Democrat Party sacrifice Senate seats to stop this nomination.<\/p>\n

Yesterday on Meet the Depressed, Dick Durbin suggested that stopping the nominee is more important than the upcoming midterm elections. He acknowledged so-called red state Democrats may be tempted to vote for Trump\u2019s selection out of political necessity, but he urged those Democrats to consider more than their political careers.<\/p>\n

Dick Durbin is asking other Democrats to put their seats at risk to defeat this nominee. Now, there are 10 red state Democrats. The Drive-Bys are telling you that there are three that might end up voting for any Trump nominee because of Trump\u2019s popularity in their state and they\u2019re up for reelection.<\/p>\n