McConnell is the wrong guy to whine about “political games” and judicial nominations

Younger readers may not have seen the ad, but in 1987 much of the country saw an anti-drug abuse commercial in which an angry father confronted his teenage son. The father wants to know where the teenager learned to use drugs.

“Is everything clear from you?” replies the son. “I learned it by watching you!”

The ad came to mind when I saw the latest developments on Capitol Hill. Newsweek reported:

“This type of partisan behavior undermines the integrity of the judiciary,” McConnell said. “Never before has a district judge retired after a presidential election. It’s literally unprecedented.”

Of course, those interested in playing “political games” with judicial nominations could very easily turn to the Kentucky Republican and say, “You got it?” We learned by watching you have!”

For example, if McConnell wants to get serious about what is “literally unprecedented” in terms of the politicization of the federal judiciary, the Senate GOP leader should be interested in his own record.

For example, it was in February 2016 when then-Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly. Then-President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland, a center-left compromise lawyer — who had won praise from Senate Republicans — to fill the vacancy, which in turn opened the door to a historic opportunity to shift the Supreme Court to the right to stop.

McConnell instead decided to impose an unprecedented Supreme Court blockade for nearly a year in the hope that Americans could elect a Republican president and a Republican Congress despite the Republicans’ abusive tactics.

It worked: McConnell effectively stole a Supreme Court seat from one administration and gave it to another. He has repeatedly bragged about how proud he was of carrying out the transgressive plan.

Nearly four years later, as Election Day 2020 approached, McConnell and his GOP brethren fought to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court — abandoning in the process the principles that had made Republicans believe they were theirs four years earlier important – even though millions of Americans took advantage of early voting.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but McConnell has done more to politicize the judiciary than anyone else in the world. To the extent anyone is playing “political games” with judicial nominations, they are simply following the playbook the Kentucky Republican wrote years ago.

This post updates our relevant previous reporting.