The US Senate confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the US Supreme Court was vindication for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who made a risky bet more than a year ago that paid off big time for US President Donald Trump and McConnell himself.
When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died in February last year, McConnell decided immediately that the Senate would not fill the seat until the next president was elected. He stuck to that stance without wavering, ignoring US Democratic griping, misgivings from fellow Republicans and ultimately erroneous predictions that Republican Senate candidates would pay a political price.
Now McConnell can take credit for allowing Trump to put a young conservative on the court for life, even though it took changing Senate rules to do it.
“No. 1, it’s courageous. No. 2, it’s genius, in that order, because he knew how much criticism he would get,” US Senator James Inhofe said.
Democrats and some Republicans predicted dire fallout from McConnell’s divisive Senate rules change that removed the 60-vote filibuster barrier for Supreme Court picks, warning of a more polarized Senate and court over time.
However, most in the Republican Party were full of praise for the wily Kentuckian.
“Mitch did what he thought was the right thing at the time, and I think the American people agreed with it, as was evidenced by the outcome of the election,” Senator John Thune said. “And now we have a great justice on the Supreme Court.”
Frustrated Democrats grudgingly acknowledged that McConnell got what he wanted and delivered for his party, even as they insisted that the damage done to the Senate in the process would not quickly be forgotten.
Next time Democrats control the White House and the Senate, they could be the ones to benefit from the rules change enacted under McConnell, since it will apply to all future Supreme Court nominees, too, eliminating any need for input from the minority party in making confirmations to the high court.
McConnell on Friday told reporters that “the most consequential decision I’ve ever been involved in was the decision to let the president being elected last year pick the Supreme Court nominee.”
It was a gamble, as McConnell said after the election that he did not think Trump had a chance of winning nor of Republicans holding their Senate majority.
McConnell and other senators also expressed hope that after the bitter fight over Gorsuch the Senate can get back on a more bipartisan course, something that will be necessary to pass spending bills to keep the lights on in government by an April 28 midnight deadline.
As for Gorsuch, 49, he is to be sworn in tomorrow and quickly begin confronting cases of consequence, including one involving separation of church and state that the justices will take up in less than two weeks.
“As a deep believer in the rule of law, Judge Gorsuch will serve the American people with distinction,” Trump said in a statement.
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