SO Harry Reid wants Obama to nominate GOP governor for Supreme Court?

[madfloridian]

Isn't that one of main talking points on why we would harm our country so much if we ever fail to vote for the Democrat who is running for President.

We hear it over and over again..."but what about the Supreme Court?". It's a major talking point for electing Democrats no matter their policies.

Harry Reid wants President Obama to nominate the governor of his state.

That is WHY I voted through the years for the Democratic nominee....to get the right people on the Supreme Court.

Obama offers Supreme Court hints; top Democrat suggests Republican governor

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid suggested a Republican, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, as a potential nominee. A source confirmed to CNN that the White House is vetting Sandoval.

[hedda_foil]

1. I guess it's time to call the White House.

[Snotcicles]

50. Looks like Harry Reid is looking for a job thats a little closer to home. nt

[Leith]

59. There's Another Way to Look at This

Here's what I posted in another thread:

I heard a couple days ago that Brian Sandoval might be interested in running for Senate when Harry Reid retires. Since he's fairly popular in NV, the gov would probably get it - thereby flipping the seat to a Republican.

Sandoval has already been a federal judge and he would probably be very interested in a lifelong position in Washington DC with all the prestige but without mucking around raising funds for reelection. Furthermore, he was pretty moderate for a Republican (he accepted the MedicAid expansion here). He would make a decent Supreme.

Reid is trying to raise the chances of keeping his Senate seat in Democratic hands.

Let's not underestimate the senior Senator from my state. He's crazy like a fox.

This may be the least bad solution possible with the Rethug scum in Congress. And it really is a pretty slick bit of politicking on Reid's part.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

78. So hand him a life-long appointment on a silver platter because he might run and might win?

That doesn't sound like such a good deal for us.

[Jim Lane]

80. Sandoval said months ago he wouldn't run for the Senate

Story here

Rep. Joe Heck has already secured the support of the GOP establishment. It's inconceivable to me that Sandoval would now change his mind and set off an intra-party bloodbath.

The only rationale for nominating him to the Court is that a Republican might win this fall and nominate someone far worse. I think Obama will do much better to nominate someone else, so that we can hammer the Republicans over their obstructionism.

[djean111]

2. It is looking more and more like after I vote for Bernie, I will not be able to

justify identifying with today's Democratic Party.

Wish I was surprised that Obama would nominate a Republican. And this puts paid to all the utter and complete bullshit about Bernie not being a Democrat - in my opinion, he is one of the very few who is NOT using the Party just to further his ambitions. He is more of a Democrat than most of them.

[PoliticAverse]

6. Do you think the Senate would approve this nomination? n/t

[djean111]

8. At this point, that doesn't enter into it.

Are you saying that Obama is playing chicken with this, like he supposedly was with chained CPI? I don't.

[Marr]

56. Three domernshunual chesss!

[Trajan]

19. That really doesn't matter

As if we should cater to that bunch of kindergarteners before making a good choice ...

It's up to the president to use his judgement to offer a qualified jurist .. we don't have to sign, seal, and deliver a ready made hyper conservative to the Senate just to get their approval ...

Screw that ...

[dorkzilla]

39. So we should just give them what they want?

It's too hard to fight so we just give them a Republican on a silver platter? Why not nominate Zephyr Teachout and fight like hell? Even if those creatures refuse to confirm her, we would start showing "them" that we're FUCKING SERIOUS ABOUT RIGHTING WRONGS.

[Fawke Em]

82. This is Hillary's entire campaign message.

"It's too hard to fight them. Better go with status quo."

[liberal_at_heart]

53. Then why not just be a Republican if we are just going to roll over and

immediately give them what they want without a fight anyway? Where is the distinction between the two parties? And more importantly who will fight for the citizens of this country if we are just going to give the Republicans what they want?

[cascadiance]

55. They would in a lame duck decision in December if Bernie gets elected for SURE!!!

They would much rather approve a selection like this than someone Bernie would nominate, possibly with a Democratic senate in place too in 2017.

And they don't have a Supreme Court in place this year that can pull what they pulled in 2000 either to try to hand the election to a Republican!

I'm thinking that if Bernie picks up steam and we know he's going to get nominated at some point, perhaps there should be plans by the Progressive caucus and other folks favoring Bernie to find a way to get some other very controversial legislation that they know will get filibustered in the lame duck session, and Bernie and others can do day long rants during that process to prevent Republicans from ever even having a hearing to try and approve in lame duck a Republican nominee by the end of the term. Find some way to force a "faustian choice" on the Republicans where they pick just one outcome to choose from, and hopefully have them pick one which has an outcome that does little or nothing to the American people, but avoids them screwing themselves in the party for the future, so that they will be forced to choose that rather than pick a flawed Supreme Court choice.

[Marr]

57. If Sanders does in fact win the nomination...

I expect Obama and the GOP will suddenly see eye to eye on a whole mountain of shit, which will rapidly be passed before Sanders can be inaugurated.

[cascadiance]

61. I think that's why it is important to plan some efforts to do filibustering of these efforts now...

... before that happens, and to know who would work with us as Democrats to do time consuming filibusters to find ways to effectively shut down those efforts. Depending on the legislation, perhaps even some Republicans might help. There probably would be a lot of pressure to pass the TPP then, as those supporting it would know they have to pass that in lame duck session as a president Sanders wouldn't sign it or other free trade treaties. There are many Republicans that have constituencies that don't want this passed too, so perhaps we could join forces to have a filibuster of the TPP take up too much time to allow for a presidential hearing on a controversial justice nominee.

[jeff47]

76. He thinks the ACA is unconstitutional.

He agrees with the Senate on a laundry list of issues. Of course they'd happily approve him.

[bbgrunt]

3. wtf!! Nader said it long ago.

[Arugula Latte]

4. With "friends" like these Democratic Party leaders, who needs enemies?

I am getting more and more disgusted with the party. I can see why people just go Green or give up on it all together. It's so demoralizing when the base continually gets stabbed in the back. I'm getting close to being completely fed up and leaving the party I joined for my first vote, for Walter Mondale.

[TheProgressive]

5. If I wanted a republican justice, I would have voted for a republican president.

Betrayal is too nice of a word.

[FiveGoodMen]

44. "republican justice"

Sounds ridiculous when you say those words together.

[arcane1]

7. And we have Hillary offering a compromise on abortion restrictions.

With liberals like these...

[jillan]

9. This is the #1 problem I have with President Obama. He always starts a compromise with a

compromised position.

Hopefully he is not listening to Harry too carefully.

[Peregrine Took]

45. Buyer's Remorse. Read the book. N/t

[Orsino]

10. Wikipedia suggests Sandoval isn't a terrible choice.

Federal bench experience, and not the worst sort of governor.

But goddamn, Harry. This had better be a joke, or a fake first-pass nod to bipartisanship.

[jeff47]

77. Sandoval thinks the ACA is unconstitutional. He's a terrible choice. (nt)

[angrychair]

11. W.T.F.

if PBO attempts to nominate a teapublican governor for SCOTUS I will be very disheartened. We are getting screwed.

[passiveporcupine]

36. this guy is a moderate, not a 'teapublican'

but the point is if he is republican, he will most likely side with republican scotus on most cases. They almost always do. We need to appoint another liberal to the SC.

[angrychair]

38. That my friend

Is the mistake:
"this guy is a moderate, not a 'teapublican'"
The lie is that there is a "moderate" Republican.
They are all teapublicans.

Supports civil unions but not gay marriage.
Lending to small businesses will help create jobs in state.
Death penalty for the worst crimes.
Supports capital punishment for certain crimes.
Yes to charter schools statewide.
School choice including private schools.
Supports education vouchers for public or private school.
Keystone XL Pipeline fundamental to economic prosperity.
2nd Amendment applies to individuals.
Opposes restrictions on the right to bear arms
$874 decrease in public employees benefit plan. (
Supports lawsuits against Obama health care bill.
ObamaCare raises constitutional questions; lawsuit needed. (Nov 2010)
Opposes government-run healthcare.
Loosen "one-size-fits-all" approach to Medicaid.

[passiveporcupine]

41. I think you are wrong

I believe there are moderate republicans out there. they are not all extremists, and teabaggers are extremists. I think there are probably some republicans who are more moderate and reasonable than many of our Blue dogs running the Dem party today.

[angrychair]

48. I wish that were true

I do have friends that are republicans but we stay on friendly terms by avoiding politics. I have had conversations and interactions (in a dozen or more states over 20+ years as an educated adult) with them and I have observed enough to confidently make that broad statement that they are racist, xenophobic, war-mongering self-serving, bat shit crazy religious hypocrites.
They may vary in intensity in these traits but all are common in a self-avowed "republican".

[passiveporcupine]

52. My mother was a republican

and she was not any of those things. She just believed what she heard at church.

[angrychair]

63. See, I say those things without hate

I have friends and a great deal of family that are republicans. They are what they are, like the sky is blue and a zebra has stripes a Dalmatian has spots. You can't change it. They are part of the great circle of life. If they didn't exist, what would a tree hugging progressive like me have to bitch about?

[disillusioned73]

12. WTF?!?!

These current "Dems" are a f*cking joke..

[senz]

13. Must be another Third Way sellout of Democratic values.

These folks have learned to love their inner Republican.

[farleftlib]

14. Attention: Dem leadership:

You were voted into office you currently hold to be the opposition party! Please check the letters in the parentheses after your name and act accordingly. The voters haven't become totally irrelevant yet. Thank you for your attention in this matter. We the people will be here to assist you should you become confused regarding how to achieve this. End of message. Carry on.

[AzDar]

15. He's been propping up GOP, and GOP-lite candidates quite a bit this week...

Time For A Revolution!

[Zorra]

16. DLC Harry is a fully owned subsidiary of oligarchy. 2004:

Does anyone else have REAL PROBLEMS with Harry Reid as ML?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2601623

[Jefferson23]

17. If Obama gets them to conference over this guy, does that translate to other nominees automatically?

[MoonchildCA]

18. Just no!

We nominated a Democrat so he could nominate, at least, a non-conservative Supreme Court judge. The people have already chosen who they wanted to be in charge of this process. If Obama makes this much of a "compromise" in his nomination, I will lose all respect for him. And I've always liked him, a lot, even though he's done some things and made some compromises I didn't like.

Better he nominate a liberal, let the republicans filibuster, or whatever they do to hold it up, and then when Sanders is elected, we can really teach them a lesson.

[dsc]

20. the last GOP governor to serve on SCOTUS was pretty damn good

he was Earl Warren.

[Jester Messiah]

24. Today's GOP is not Warren's GOP. [nt]

[jfern]

46. Earl Warren had managed to win the 1946 Democratic primary for governor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gubernatorial_election,_1946

[CharlotteVale]

21. So much for the Supreme Court being any incentive to vote. If Obama does this

then keeping the Supreme Court in Republican hands and the TPP will be his legacy.

[TheLogicalSong]

22. The party loyalists will fall in line, telling everyone how great of a chess move it is.

And how we should be in complete awe of the brilliant leadership.

[MisterP]

30. and that if we don't like it we'll lose 2016 and a Republican might be nominated to the bench!

[Jester Messiah]

23. The Uniparty has spoken.

Fall in line, plebes!

[KoKo]

28. The UNIPARTY....sigh

I'm sure it's just another compromising Chess move. Fake out for the Repubs...blah..blah.

[azmom]

25. Kick

[jwirr]

26. I don't know about the rest of you but I would see that as

betrayal. And out party already has enough of that. There is an old saying about the election where no one came to vote????

[Warren Stupidity]

27. And once again the gop starts the negotiations

at 0, and the dems will start at halfway to zero.

And this is why we need to start electing real democrats, not turdways.

[Hoyt]

29. He's probably got one or two in mind where we have the photos/evidence to put them away.

[hlthe2b]

31. not only a Republican, but another Roman Catholic. I'm not saying the latter should exclude him...

but, given how Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito, and on many occasions, Kennedy (all R. Catholics) have voted, I'm apprehensive. Granted the one woman R. Catholic, Sotomayor, has not allowed religious edicts to drive her decisions, but I'm surely wary of any new conservatives.

And that does not even begin to address my issues with nominating a Republican...

[Zorra]

71. Yes. We need to have no doubts or apprehensions whatsoever about the person

who is nominated. The candidate must be 100% certifiably pro choice, pro civil rights, pro democracy, etc.

We can't risk a defection.

[bkkyosemite]

32. They showed pics of his vetting at the WH

I voted both times for Obama but it's like they got him on something so he will play along with the Repubs wants and needs. I am totally disheartened for the change he promised but is not there. He had both houses in the beginning and yet not much change.

Now the meme is that the nomination should be getting over soon and that Sanders needs to bow out. This party is so so disheartening.

[rnk6670]

35. O is a major

disappointment. Just as a Hillary Whitehouse would be. Tired of this right leaning moderate shit. Time for a new fucking direction.

[malthaussen]

37. Mr Obama has done nothing, as yet.

The endorsement is Harry Reid's. Do you really think that because Mr Sandoval is being "vetted" and has been suggested by his state crony that that means it is a done deal?

-- Mal

[Change has come]

85. Isn't this what democracy looks like?

The "people" get to vet the trial balloons too.

[Fuddnik]

60. I disagree.

O is a major disappointment.

With Hillary we know exactly what we'll get. That is, if you pay attention.

[Lizzie Poppet]

40. Proudly doing his corporate duty.

Corrupt to the fucking core...

[LiberalLovinLug]

42. A desparate attempt by the Turd Way to make sure they have the 5-4 majority once again.

And also to act as a insurance plug for their corporate masters in case the nation actually DOES vote in Sanders, and another judge leaves office during his time in the WH.

[Dem2]

43. It's a play to make the Republicans look bad.

Bernie=Jesus

lol

[AtheistCrusader]

47. Nominate Bloomberg.

[scottie55]

49. Let's Just Surrender Now

Why wait for elections and stuff.....

Republican = Evil = Duh

Harry is insane.....

[Octafish]

51. Republicans on SCOTUS are what got us in this mess.

A 5-4 fascist crapstorm of a mess.

[sulphurdunn]

54. "An understanding of the way the world really works." Obama

That's code for 'someone who knows that a fraction of a percent of the people run things and who intends to see it stays that way.'

[liberal_at_heart]

58. I have a feeling Obama will do it too. I got a sick feeling in my stomach when Obama said he

would nominate someone that is so qualified that the Republicans couldn't refuse them. I think that is code for he will nominate someone he knows the Republicans will like. That is a bad sign.

[madamesilverspurs]

62. Consider that

Harry Reid is very good at knowing how to place a burr under GOP saddles...

[Ferd Berfel]

64. One last kick in the guts of the Democratic base before

he goes through that great revolving door and to his Lobbying reward

[Helen Borg]

65. Reid. Part of the problem.

[WillyT]

66. K & R !!!

[voteragain]

67. hmmm

I had to make a reply here.

those of you who follow politics for 24/7 no matter if your a Hillary supporter or a Bernie supporter, what's going on here?

what's the message Harry is telling?

vote Dem cause we will give you a repub for the Supreme Court and the GOP won't?

I'm flabbergasted !

FDR must be turning in his grave where the Democratic party is going.........

[madfloridian]

72. They could lose one of the main arguments to keep indy-minded people in the party...

if this is done.

Good post, the message seems to be we have no message so we will nominate a Republican.

[DrewFlorida]

68. This is the most important function of the President for liberal causes...he better not nominate...

A God Damn Republican Governor for the Supreme Court.....I don't care how God Damn centrist he is!

[cui bono]

69. So SCOTUS now becomes one more reason NOT to vote for Hillary.

The only way to save this country from anything and everything is to vote for Bernie. This proves it.

.

[madfloridian]

70. On the Issues, Brian Sandoval

http://www.ontheissues.org/Brian_Sandoval.htm

[Armstead]

73. Doesn;t square with what Obama or Clinton claim to support

2nd Amendment applies to individuals. (Nov 2010)
Opposes restrictions on the right to bear arms. (Aug 2010)
Brian Sandoval on Health Care
Click here for 5 full quotes on Health Care OR background on Health Care.
$874 decrease in public employees benefit plan. (Sep 2011)
Supports lawsuits against Obama health care bill. (Dec 2010)
ObamaCare raises constitutional questions; lawsuit needed. (Nov 2010)
Opposes government-run healthcare. (Aug 2010)
Loosen "one-size-fits-all" approach to Medicaid. (Jan 2011)

[0rganism]

74. this doesn't seem like bad strategy

Brian Sandoval -- name suggests Hispanic roots, may have some strong career qualifications, and should be ideologically acceptable to most Republicans, makes declining to consider this nomination pretty difficult.

i expect Obama will continue throwing Hispanic moderates at them until they crack or implode from overwhelming stupidity.

[Doctor_J]

75. Obama unleashes his uber liberal self for his last two years 11!!!1!!!!

I'm not voting for any more DINO, ever

[Todays_Illusion]

79. This is the Governor that sold out the Solar company and now Warren Buffet owns Nevada Pwr.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-18/berkshire-fights-rooftop-solar-as-buffett-champions-green-energy

[Fawke Em]

81. Sigh. I'm so tired of politics as usual.

The establishment is two sides of the same coin.

We're just the peons. You know why we're called that? Cause we just get peed on.

[pansypoo53219]

83. OBAMA BETTER NOT PANDER TO THESE RACISTS!

MAKE them do their JOBS.

[Matariki]

84. Sounds like a Favor Reach Around

Or would it be a Favor Daisy Chain?

I can't keep up