The Hill: McConnell cries foul after 2 Democratic judges cancel retirement after Trump victory

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61. Maddow Blog McConnell is the wrong guy to whine about 'political games,' judicial nominations

As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell complains about people playing “political games” with judicial nominations, irony weeps in the corner.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/mcconnell-wrong-guy-whine-political-games-judicial-nominations-rcna182685

The ad came to mind watching the latest developments on Capitol Hill. Newsweek reported:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was called out by his Democratic colleague after the Kentucky senator complained about playing ‘political games’ with judicial nominations. McConnell made the remark during a Senate floor session on Monday and said he was concerned that two U.S. circuit court judges who had plans to retire may not follow through with them in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 U.S. election.

“This sort of partisan behavior undermines the integrity of the judiciary,” McConnell said. “Never, never before has a circuit judge un-retired after a presidential election. It’s literally unprecedented.”

Of course, those interested in playing “political games” with judicial nominations could very easily turn to the Kentucky Republican by saying, “From you, all right? We learned it by watching you!”

If, for example, McConnell seriously wants to have a conversation about what’s “literally unprecedented” when it comes to the politicization of the federal judiciary, the Senate GOP leader should be interested in his own record.

It was in February 2016, for example, when then-Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly. Then-President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland, a center-left, compromise jurist — who’d received praise from Senate Republicans — to fill the vacancy, which in turn opened the door to a historic opportunity to stop the high court’s drift to the right......

Nearly four years later, as Election Day 2020 approached, McConnell and his GOP brethren scrambled to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court — abandoning the principles Republicans pretended to care about four years earlier — even as millions of Americans were taking advantage of early voting.

Not to put too fine a point on this, but McConnell has done more than anyone alive to politicize the judiciary. To the extent that anyone is playing “political games” with judicial nominations, they are merely following the playbook the Kentucky Republican authored years ago.