A Tiny Bit Of GOP Pushback -- Digby [View all]

[erronis]

https://digbysblog.net/2025/06/16/a-tiny-bit-of-gop-pushback/

This is an interesting development:

Trump recently appeared to declare war on the Federalist Society, the powerful conservative legal advocacy organization that played an essential role in his election both in 2016 and 2024. After one of his first-term appointees ruled against him in a major challenge to his tariffs, Trump launched a public tirade against the former chair of the group, Leonard Leo, who Trump described as a “sleazebag” who “probably hates America” before blaming the group for “bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations.”

But the more tangible potential rupture with at least parts of the conservative legal movement is coming over Trump’s decision to nominate Emil Bove — formerly Trump’s criminal defense lawyer, currently Trump’s enforcer at the Justice Department — to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Apparently, the conservative legal establishment has been speaking out and the MAGA wingnuts are not happy.

Bove is a thug who has been doing Donald Trump’s bidding since he’s gone to DOJ, targeting political enemies and letting his allies off the hook. The legal establishment thinks that may not be the best thing for the judiciary. Imagine that.

But don’t count on the Senate Republicans who are little more than dancing puppets for whatever Dear Leader demands:

{B}ased on how Trump’s second term has gone so far, it’s clear Senate Republicans will be reluctant to tank one of his nominees.

That’s particularly true because the opposition to Bove has produced an aggressive defense from Trump’s most ardent defenders in the conservative legal community. The Article III Project quickly produced a stream of articles and commentary supporting Trump’s choice — largely, it seemed, on the grounds that Bove would be a reliable supporter of Trump’s political agenda and legal positions.

Mike Davis, the group’s founder and onetime counsel to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), lauded the appointment while tweaking both ends of the opposition. “The left fears Emil Bove because he’s effective,” Davis said. “The establishment right resents him because he refuses to play by their rules.”

Here’s the real nightmare. Bove is frequently mentioned as a top Supreme Court choice should one of the current justices retire or die.

. . .

In case we have tried to forget one of the faces of trmp's world (reminds me of a more dissolute Stevie Miller):