On the Supreme Court,Ted Cruz pretends to forget his own record

[malaise]

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/supreme-court-ted-cruz-pretends-forget-his-own-record-n1264955
Realistically, the odds of Democrats approving major judicial reforms aren't great. A group of Democrats unveiled a bill this week to increase the size of the U.S. Supreme Court from 9 justices to 13, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters she has "no plans" to bring the proposal to the floor.

The measure also received a rather tepid response from other Democratic lawmakers. In the House, the bill now has just 12 co-sponsors, and in the Senate, a companion bill was introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), but it currently has zero co-sponsors.

Nevertheless, Republicans are pretending to be deeply concerned about the matter, leading Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Ted Cruz (Texas), and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) to hold a press conference in front of the Supreme Court this morning. Much of the rhetoric was boilerplate -- there were several references to a "power grab" -- but Cruz went a little further than his GOP colleagues with this line:

Well, a couple of things.

First, when there was a GOP majority in the Senate, Republicans didn't have much of a need to "rig the game," because the Supreme Court was already conservative. Remember, at no point in Ted Cruz's lifetime has a majority of the high court been appointed by Democratic presidents.

[riversedge]

1. "You didn't see Republicans, when we had control of the Senate, try to rig the game. You didn't see

So, says the LIAR @TedCruz
"You didn't see Republicans, when we had control of the Senate, try to rig the game. You didn't see us try to pack the court."

[malaise]

2. It would be hilarious if it weren't such a blatant lie

These people are sick

[malthaussen]

3. Well, he speaks the truth. They didn't "try," they went right ahead and did it.

But I am puzzled by the enthusiasm of Democrats for expanding the Court to "restore balance." There are no Constitutional limits on the number of judges on the Court, and good arguments for having many more. Say the Democrats expand the Court to 11, what's to prevent the GOP from expanding it to 15 if they get control again? Shall we get into a Judge arms race between the two parties?

Frankly, I think the GOP missed a great opportunity during the Trump years to expand the Court themselves. They could have added three or four more hard-right Justices, and who could say them nay? That they didn't is a sign of short-range thinking: they thought seizing a simple majority was sufficient. Amazingly, the GOP were insufficiently ruthless.

-- Mal

[malaise]

4. Sometimes I think Dems are afraid of their own shadows

The majority of Americans do not support the fascists

[malthaussen]

5. Frankly makes one wonder how many Democratic politicians secretly agree with them.

Politics does tend to attract narcissistic authoritarians. It would be naive to imagine that they all are only in the GOP. Those on the other side of the aisle just have a different technique.

It's a lot easier to imagine a message has broad appeal when you secretly agree with it.

-- Mal

[malaise]

6. Yep

I have had the same worry about trickle down economics. Thankfully it looks like Biden is prepared to bury that one - we'll see.