【 以下文字转载自 USANews 讨论区 】
发信人: brihand (brihand), 信区: USANews
标 题: liberal ok: if we lose, we win
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Thu Apr 6 14:36:45 2017, 美东)
Progressives are declaring an early victory over Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme
Court nomination.
Even if President Trump’s pick is confirmed after a historic Senate vote on
Thursday to end the minority party's ability to filibuster Supreme Court
nominations, liberal groups think they’ll win.
They predict that Republicans will face a backlash over changing the Senate
’s rules and will have to own any controversial decisions handed down by
the Supreme Court heading into the 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential
election.
“It's been our belief since election night that Democrats' job is to do
everything they can to block Trump's interest and agenda,” said Heidi Hess,
the senior campaign manager for Credo Action. “We're absolutely in support
of the Democratic Party acting like the opposition party.”
Kaylie Hanson Long, a spokeswoman for NARAL Pro-Choice America, added
separately that if Republicans decide to employ the "nuclear option" on
Gorsuch, they will be changing the rules for “a president under active FBI
investigation for potential ties to Russia.”
“Let’s be clear: the decision to blow up the Senate is squarely in the
hands of Republicans, and Republicans alone. And it will be only Republican
votes to change the rules,” she wrote in a memo to reporters.
Outside groups are stepping up their attacks on a handful of vulnerable
Republicans.
The People’s Defense — a coalition of outside groups led by NARAL—
released digital ad campaign worth at least $100,000 targeting Republicans
in Arizona, Alaska, Maine, Nevada and South Carolina, warning them that “
history is watching.”
GOP Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and Dean Heller (Nev.) are considered the two
most vulnerable GOP senators up for reelection in 2018.
The Constitutional Responsibility Project also released last-minute ads
targeting Republicans in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, Nebraska, South Carolina
and Tennessee.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee launched newspaper ads targeting
Flake, Heller and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who is up for reelection in 2018
and already has a Democratic opponent, as well as red-state Democratic Sens.
Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.).
A handful of red-state and centrist Democratic senators have cast doubt over
the strategy of blocking Gorsuch, who will fill a seat held by former
conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. They’ve suggested it might be better
to have the standoff over the next court vacancy.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who is opposing the Democratic filibuster
against Gorsuch, said earlier this week that he had spent weeks trying to
avoid the “nuclear option.”
"If we go down this road we will undermine the minority's ability to check
this administration and all those who follow," he said from the Senate floor.
He warned that if senators don't back down Attorney General Jeff Sessions or
EPA Administer Scott Pruitt, who Democrats have serious concerns about,
could be nominated to the Supreme Court and Democrats would have no tools to
block them.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who is opposing Gorsuch’s nomination, raised
similar concerns during a private fundraiser, audio of which was leaked by
the Missouri Republican Party.
