Wheel ’emin for Barrett
Have you noticed that right now everything is about Amy Coney Barrett, thenew Supreme Court nominee?
OK, youwere thinking everything was about the coronavirus. But where did a lot of our alleged national leaders seem to get infected? The party Donald Trump gave to celebrate her nomination. Really, you might have been safer going to a midnight fraternity party in somebody’s basement.
When Trump decided hewanted to drop negotiations on a new coronavirus relief bill, he said the Senate needed to devote all its attention to Barrett.
Nowthe economy could go to hell in a handbasket if Congress fails to act and there’s nomore aid to the states, cities or faltering industries. If so, dowe chalk it up to Amy?
Not saying, obviously, that she planned to create mass unemployment. But there’s just something about the nomination that makes everything wacky. Or I guess the word should be wackier.
Unless you have been living in a fetal position under your bed— which is perfectly understandable, really— you’ve heard that Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are intent on getting Barrett ensconced in Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat as fast as possible.
So, the Judiciary Committee, led by the omnipresent Lindsey Graham, is going to hold hearings on the nomination. Then the Republicans are going to race, race, race through the process so the Senate can vote to approve the nomination at least a week before the election.
That’s way too fast. Barrett has had a fine career, but she’s only served as a judge for three years. (Ginsburg had put in 13.) There’s a lot about her positions that the country would want to hear discussed. At length. She espouses anti-abortion views that are much more conservative than those of most other Americans. It seems that she’d be unenthusiastic about government action on things like globalwarming. She apparently was closely connected to a conservative Christian group called People of Praise that has a history of stressing a husband’s role as head of the household.
McConnell says questions about Barrett’s religious background “are a disgrace,” and it is quite true that senators would have to be very careful on that line of inquiry. Which is why it’s so important to have those serious, unhurried hearings.
And hey, have you noticed that Republican senators are starting to come down with the coronavirus? Two Judiciary Committee members, Mike Lee and Thom Tillis, are sick and now presumably infectious. (Earlier, Leewas at Trump’s Judge Amy party, where he seemed to be hugging about half the attendees.) So Mitch wants to let folks do their committee work from home if they prefer, in the basic Zoomish method we have all come to know and hate.
“A virtual hearing is virtually no hearing at all,” protested Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Well, yeah. And this is possibly the most important vote some of these senators will take in their entire term of office— one that could shift the court’s center of gravity far to the right for decades.
Sooner or later— well, sooner since these guys have less than four weeks until Election Day— the Senate will have to actually get together in person and vote. McConnell will need almost all of his Republicans to showup, no matter what their viral condition.
The idea of bringing in an ailing lawmaker for a big vote is not unheard of. In 1918, when Congresswas finally ready to pass a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote, one House member who had been in the hospital for six months managed to stagger in. Another refused to have his newly broken arm and shoulder set for fear of missing the vote. Anotherman had himself carried in on a stretcher.
In 1964, Sen. Clair Engle of California wheeled into the Capitol so he could vote for the civil rights bill. The poor man had undergone two brain operations.
What do you think the chances are an Amy Coney Barrett vote will be less inspiring? For one thing, these guys are not being wheeled in froman appendectomy. They’re infectious.
Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, one of the ailing, says he’ll “go in amoon suit if necessary.”
Think about this, people. The U.S. Senate is going to conduct business in the middle of a pandemic that is already sweeping through the Capitol. Republicans are going to do it because they feel compelled to ram through the Supreme Court nomination of awoman whose views do not reflect most of American society’s, just days before a presidential election in which the nation canmake it very clear what kind of president and Senate it prefers.
Doyou think it’s possible that certain Republicans don’t think that’s going to go their way?
Collins is a columnist for The New York Times.