„I used to think that Roe v. Wade was secure. I don’t think it will be secure now.“<\/b>
\nI have two clips here, both of them feature MSNBC\u2019s Chris Matthews responding to the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy and both of them are counseling Democrats to stop the nomination of a new Justice by any means necessary.
\u201cTo give this to the Republicans when they control the Senate basically 51 or 50 to 49 with John McCain perhaps not voting again\u2014to give them this last chance to pack the court 5-4 again hard conservative, I again, I say the base will attack the leadership for this if they allow it to happen and they should. Because this is time for vengeance for what happened 2 years ago. And if they don\u2019t reap the vengeance now with four and half months to go before the election, they will not look very strong to their base.\u201d
\u201cI think the Democrats have to fight this tooth and nail\u2026 The base will attack the leadership for this if they allow it to happen and they should. This is the time for vengeance for what happened 2 years ago.\u201d @HardballChris on Kennedy\u2019s retirement. pic.twitter.com\/vovZUM4wFi
\u2014 Hardball (@hardball) June 27,2018
Of course, this isn\u2019t the same situation as two years ago. Back then, Republicans controlled the Senate and chose not to give a hearing to Obama\u2019s nominee as he was leaving office. That\u2019s exactly what Matthews and others hope the Democrats can do by putting this off until next year, i.e. reject any conservative nominee offered by Trump. Also, it\u2019s worth pointing out that McConnell\u2019s argument was that the next president should choose the nominee. He had no guarantee at the time that a Republican would get to make that choice. In fact, most people expected Hillary would be the next president. But Trump isn\u2019t leaving office next January. He\u2019ll be around for two more years at least. So even if the Democrats take the Senate, all they can do is create a stalemate.
Now let\u2019s move on to clip two. In this clip, Matthews makes it explicit that his main concern is the future of Roe v. Wade. \u201cTo allow [Trump] to pick another Supreme Court Justice is frightening,\u201d Matthews said. He continued, \u201cI used to think that Roe v. Wade was secure. I don\u2019t think it will be secure now. I don\u2019t think it will be secure at all with five hard-nosed conservatives.\u201d \u201cI think the leadership [of the Democratic Party] is finished if they allow this to come to a vote,\u201d Matthews added.
Asked how Democrats could prevent the inevitable, Matthews responded, \u201cThey have to use dilatory tactics, all the hardball tactics that Mr. McConnell is very good at\u2026 Don\u2019t allow a vote on this, don\u2019t have a hearing, don\u2019t have a meeting, don\u2019t let anything go forward. Don\u2019t play ball with this decision\u2026 If they let this come to a vote and he squeaks in with 50 votes with the Vice President supporting this, they\u2019ll never be forgiven for this.
Even if Democrats manage to put off this vote somehow and take back the Senate this fall, their margin isn\u2019t likely to much bigger than that of the Republicans right now. Matthews keeps suggesting a 51-49 vote is somehow illegitimate to decide something so momentous, but would a 52-48 vote to block every nominee be much more legitimate? Of course not, but it would get Democrats like Matthews the result they want. In other words, this isn\u2019t about legitimacy, this is about partisanship.
That said, I think Chris Matthews is right about the mood on the left. We\u2019ve spent the past week discussing whether or not personal confrontations of public figures is appropriate in restaurants. The Democratic leadership was nominally against it while a substantial portion of the base was cheering it on.
Now the base is on fire with a new threat. The party is going to have to forget about name-checking civility if they want to avoid getting burned. And let\u2019s face it, there are no norms the left won\u2019t incinerate to protect Roe v. Wade. Planned Parenthood will be urging them on with everything it has. And that strikes me as enough kindling to make this a potentially dangerous moment for America. I think this could get very ugly, very fast. Harsh words in public may be the least of it this time. This has the potential to be explosive.<\/p>\n

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