Justice Stephen Breyer is certainly entitled to retire after 28 momentous years considering weighty issues on the nation’s highest court with a decidedly liberal view of our Constitution and laws. At 83, Breyer’s also certainly a lot sharper than some 79-year-olds we know in Washington who should retire.
Most of the focus in recent days has not been on the quality of Breyer’s work, his decisions, legal thinking on shaping the laws we all live under. It’s been on politics, the process, how the respected jurist was allegedly pressured to retire now, before he died, so that before Joe Biden died he could name a younger, liberal successor.
In fact, he was “pushed.” News of his retirement was leaked prematurely to get the ball rolling.
See, the “problem” was Ruth Bader Ginsburg kept doing the job she loved, even as she struggled for long months valiantly fighting cancer and related ailments, until she died two years ago at 87. That, horror of horrors, left the selection of her successor to the Mean Tweeter, who wasn’t liberal.
These are human beings in those lifetime jobs, not just ideological icons to be used politically and then discarded for a new model in the next era. The court was designed that way to protect enduring values and eliminate the sudden twists and turns of political fates and waves.
Sometimes individuals and the court collectively fit our personal views, sometimes not. But the view should always be long-term.
That can be hard to remember when we’re all raised and entertained on the rhythms of television’s 11-minute story chapters. Or, worse, the rapid-fire images of today’s ads designed by and for people who were raised on similarly-paced shows,
Everything’s short now. News sound-bites used to run 20-30 seconds ,allowing time for at least a brief explanation. Today’s sound bites might last six or eight seconds, an eternity in a business that thinks Americans have the attention-span of butterflies flitting from blossom to blossom. And trains them to think that way.
As one result, in the current politics of our nation’s capital, news cycles last 12, 24 hours, maybe even a few days if media can get enough people arguing over and reacting to some event or statement. Then, for an unexplained reason, we must move on to another controversy. That news story becomes like last weekend’s dried-out leftovers.
Remember Joe Biden’s vow on nationwide television last summer to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan until every American or Afghan ally who wanted out got out?
Of course, he didn’t do that. He said it just to sound good for that awkward moment and get through an interview with George Stephanopoulos. Then, on to the next photo op, counting on that becoming news leftovers.
As one result, according to Biden’s own State Department, 14,000 Americans remain stuck in that godforsaken war zone, with another 60,000 Afghan allies and their families. They are currently being hunted down one-by-one, for their now unacceptable allegiance to foreign forces now safely back home feeling no particular obligation.
After this, what foreign national would ever voluntarily help the United States?
Where is the sustained news coverage of this outrageous stain on our national honor? It’s gone, too. Poof. Moved on to the next compelling story to grab the attention of readers and viewers. You know, old men and women in Congress fighting over the debt limit. Democrats fighting over how many trillions more to spend on prized pet projects.
Or the sacred or dreaded filibuster, an arcane institutional rule that millionaire senators and their media minions fight over to suit their – wait for it – short-term political desires. That gets quickly boring for non-millionaire spectators.
So now, thank God, we have another gripping story, an “historic” fight over a new Supreme Court justice to replace Breyer. He’s actually a rather interesting fellow. He looks unobtrusive, the kind of person who could stroll by court tourist groups unnoticed, which he did.
He’s a native San Franciscan, which makes him liberal, of course. But a weird liberal because he was an Eagle Scout and actually has military service on his resume.
Anyway, forget about him. Now, the news will be dominated by the next big story, the hunt for his successor by the mysterious, unidentified “they” that Joe Biden so often says are telling him where to stand, what to say, who to call on.
As current leader of the diverse, equity party, Joe Biden has erased much of the mystery by promising that the nominee will be a black woman. This may be one promise he actually keeps.
Imagine if an NBA team skipped the skill part and publicly promised it would draft a tall, white guy to please those fans without mentioning that, oh, well, yeah, sure he also needs to be a good shooter. But, don’t forget, he has to be white.
And that brings us to the real reason Stephen Breyer retired now. Because his successor needs Senate confirmation. Democrats’ rush is an unspoken admission they believe they’re going to lose “control” of the Senate in November’s midterm elections in just 40 weeks.
Even now, a smooth confirmation is not a given. As a reflection of the Senate’s even party split, the Judiciary Committee that will handle the confirmation is also evenly split by party, 10:10. Except in committee, there’s no VP to break a tie.
Voters chose to give the Senate the 50:50 split last time, with the vice president casting the tie-breaking vote.
A president’s first midterm elections are an interim referendum on that president’s job. They usually go badly for a president’s party. Biden’s disastrous Reign of Error so far, in very many ways, has earned him a disastrous job approval (down from 55 percent a year ago to 40 percent now and still fading).
So, it’s likely the GOP could pick up a couple of seats, as it has in most recent midterms. Arizona, Georgia, and New Hampshire, for example, look iffy for Dem incumbents now.
That would make Mitch McConnell Majority Leader again. Remember what the Kentucky Republican did the last time he held that job in 2016 and a Democrat president sent a Supreme Court nominee to that chamber for confirmation.
McConnell blocked the nominee, Merrick Garland. He remained unemployed until Joe Biden recycled him to head the Justice Department. Garland is another part of Biden’s diversity push. He’s a short Chicagoan.
Biden’s been making a lot of promises about black women; Kamala Harris was one that turned out poorly because it was based mainly on skin, not skill. Biden says he’ll have another black woman by the end of February. So, stand by for a month of media speculation on her identity.
Remember Donald Trump? He released an advance list of 20 men and women he would pick from. He did it to let people see, scrutinize, and debate their qualifications. And all three were confirmed.
Joe Biden is always late for everything, sometimes two whole hours late. It’s okay though because he doesn’t care. He says he intends to carry on as before. And there might be another Delaware vacation tucked in there. So, the process of selecting a lifetime appointee who’s a black female might just slip into March.
By then, this president still won’t be doing anything about those thousands of humans he abandoned in Afghanistan with such casual cruelty. That’s ancient history in his short-term world. And ours now too, alas.
