Veteran Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) threw an opening punch Monday morning in an Op-Ed posted by Fox News that landed square on the hypocrisy of Senate Democrats now lining up against confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court.
It boils down to this: Democrats are looking for any excuse to reject the Gorsuch nomination. It’s not about his qualifications, it is about politics. That Op-Ed appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee – which Grassley chairs – met to consider the Gorsuch nomination.
This came as Democrats were threatening to filibuster, which would force Republicans to use the “nuclear option” of changing the rules to allow confirmation by a simple majority.
Here’s what Grassley said:
It’s become abundantly clear that if the Democrats are willing to filibuster somebody with the credentials, judicial temperament and independence of Judge Gorsuch, it’s obvious they would filibuster anybody.”
Separately Monday morning, Fox News posted list of Democrats who have announced their opposition to Gorsuch. That list includes all four senators from Washington and Oregon, plus newcomer Kamala Harris from California. During Monday’s committee debate, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein also announced her opposition. Essentially, the committee vote appears headed for a strict party-line split.
The full Senate is supposed to take up the nomination on Friday. Between now and then, there will be plenty of behind-the-scenes maneuvering.
Perhaps Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) summed it up best during his remarks when he suggested Democrats are unlikely to approve any nomination by Donald Trump because “it gets their goat” that he won the presidency. But, he added, the November election was a “referendum” on who people wanted to nominate the next Supreme Court justice.
As Liberty Park Press has previously noted, anti-gunners do not want Gorsuch on the high court, where they fear he will be a pro-rights vote should another Second Amendment issue come before the court. That issue may very well be “right to carry” which presently has the gun prohibition lobby engaging in a furious campaign to demonize.
In an appropriately-timed April 1 email blast, the anti-gun Everytown for Gun Safety declared that national concealed carry reciprocity legislation currently being considered by Congress “would completely gut our gun laws by forcing each state to follow the weak standards of other states — effectively making no standards at all the law of the land.”
Not long ago, the argument against national reciprocity was that it would allow criminals to carry guns across state lines, which they already do, anyway.
The message confuses things a bit, however. Concealed carry reciprocity simply allows people licensed in one state to carry on their license in another state, under that state’s laws. But Everytown mixes this up with the so-called “Constitutional carry” movement under which law-abiding citizens can carry peaceably without a permit. A dozen states have such laws, but they also still issue carry permits and licenses so that their citizens can carry in other states under existing reciprocity agreements.
Constitutional carry is a completely separate issue, but the hysteria being generated by gun prohibitionists suggests that carry of any kind is a visceral issue with that lobby.
It presents quite a problem for anti-gunners in Washington State, where the Department of Licensing reported Monday that there are now 578,249 active concealed pistol licenses. This includes more than 101,000 in King County, the bluest county in the state, where two active gun control organizations – Washington Ceasefire and the Alliance for Gun Responsibility – are headquartered.
Monday’s new number shows 3,162 more active CPLs than at the end of February.
Related:
Are Neil Gorsuch’s Opponents Making Him Look Better?
‘Smart’ Guns Damaged by Dumb Rhetoric?
Obama’s Unintended Legacy: A Better Armed America
