Death could not happen to a nicer guy, so I feel no guilt in my schadenfreude. Hey, everybody’s got to go sometime anyway, so I’ll dance on his grave all I want. Go ahead, shoot me. See if I care.
It’s not enough that he did a lot of harm to me and mine, but to make things even worse, he was going to do even more harm to us in the future. This guy was actively hurting me. I do not mourn it when people who hurt me and mine die and cannot hurt us anymore. Why should I? Further, he will be replaced with someone who will be a lot less likely to hurt me and mine.
Boy nobody saw that coming, now did they?
Thing is there is no way that this can turn out anything but good. All of those horrific 5-4 reactionary decisions by Scalia, Alito, Thomas, Roberts and Kennedy are over once and for all and may we bury them with a stake through their heart so they never come back to hurt us again. Kennedy was supposed to be a wild card, but instead he has turned rightwing on us.
The Republican strategy has been to stack the court with Catholics: Scalia, Alito, Roberts and Kennedy are all very conservative Catholics. Why all of these rightwing White Protestants are so hip on having a bunch of Papists on our highest court is beyond me, especially because their Christianity is so insane that many regard Catholics as heretical non-Christians.
So the Supreme Court that our fundamentalist Protestants love so much is stacked top to bottom with Christ-killers and Popish Romanists. There’s hardly a Protestant or “real Christian” on the court! Nevertheless, these reactionary pre-Vatican 2 Trad Mel Gibson types fill the role of reactionary Protestants, as one is about as fanatically Christian as the other.
There is no way out of this catastrophe for the Republicans. The court now has eight members, an even number. Bad idea. Guess what? Although the numbers of judges on the Court has varied through time, one ting stayed constant: that there were an odd number of justices on the court. The Supremes are not alone in this regard, as all other federal district courts also have odd numbers of seats.
There were never an even number of seats on the court as there are now. There were never an even number of seats on US district courts either. If someone died, the position was immediately filled with an appointment. No one, not even these insane Republicans, wants an even number of justices on the Court. It’s too inane even for the Republicans.
Anyway, there is not much benefit to the Republicans in having an eight-man court. All of those horrific 5-4 conservative decisions would now be 4-4 ties. This stasis benefits the Republicans how now? Tied decisions have no meaning at all, and the case just reverts back to whatever the last district court ruled. You would have an impotent Court that not only could be counted on not to make the liberal decisions the Republicans hate but also would be so floppy that they could not render the conservative decisions that the Republicans want either. In other words, a completely useless Court of the sort you have in a lot of dictatorships.
An eight man court is bad for the Republicans and bad for the Democrats too.
This sort of legal nihilism benefits nobody but the Libertarians. I would assume that since it renders one third of the federal government useless, the Paultards would be quite happy. But most Republicans are not Paultard Libertarians. They actually believe in government – conservative government! They don’t want a do-nothing Court, they want the same thing they accused of Left of – an activist court – but in this case a reactionary activist Court to roll back all of the progress we have made since the 1890’s, which is where Karl Rove and I assume the RNC want teleport us back to. They want a government that does things, lots of things. Reactionary things!
The Republicans will make a big huff and puff show out of this, and the Tea Party will probably be as insane as they usually are. It would not surprise me if the Tea Party would want an eight man court, as they seem to prefer a Somalia-style state anyway. But that’s not for the Republicans who, as nuts as they are, are not that nihilistic. As much as they take money from the Kochs, most Republicans do not subscribe to the fanatical Libertarianism that the Kochs do. Republicans don’t want an ancient broken stopped Libertarian clock that’s right twice a day. They want a finely tuned top-of-the-line handmade Swiss clock manufactured specifically to run backwards!
So we will be treated to a Republican theater piece/charade where they will demand a reactionary appointee from Obama and will stonewall everyone else. But this cannot not hold, and soon enough playtime will be over, and they will have to swallow hard and ratify someone from the hated Obama. You can rest assured that Obama will not cave in to menacing Republican demands that he appoint a reactionary or else. He’s not that much of a pussy.
The Democrats themselves will conduct their own little theater piece. First they will appoint as liberal a nominee as they can tolerate (probably not very liberal in Obama’s case). Of course, the Republicans will shoot them down with much pompous circumstance. The sleazy press will play the whole choreographed show to the hilt for the same lowly reason they always do, to sell more birdcage liner.
But the band must play on. The dice must be rolled, and odd must win and even must lose. At some point in this absurd theatre, the Republicans, barf bags in hand, will essentially cave and ratify the most liberal nominee that they can tolerate while clutching their groaning stomachs and reaching for the Tums.
So it’s all good for our side no matter what. Things are looking up in our benighted land for the first time in a while now. Let’s all go have a drink now. See you at the party tonite!
Clink!
