Nominations and Deals

I've been eagerly awaiting the word on who President Trump will nominate to the Supreme Court - not necessarily because I'm expecting to like the person in question, of course. Honestly, I'm not quite sure why I'm paying as much attention to the topic as I am. 

Given the current list of finalists, I'm guessing most of them would get confirmed, with or without any Democratic support. So there's not much chance that paying attention to the issue or being active will have much effect on the outcome, unless one happens to be someone who the president or critical senators trust enough to listen to. But it is interesting to look at how both the right and left are reacting to the impending nomination; the Wall Street Journal is calling for someone with an impeccable conservative record, whereas the New York Times is arguing that the stronger candidates are the ones that the WSJ likes the least.

It will be interesting to see which way the president goes - potentially easier to nominate, but less of a concrete record (e.g. Hardiman), or best possible record but more chance of unhappiness from Democrats (e.g. Kavanaugh)? Given the lack of any filibuster and the Republican majority, it's hard to see why he wouldn't go for the latter and avoid any risk of a nominee turning out like former justice Souter. Then again, I certainly wouldn't complain if he didn't, nor would I be particularly surprised.