Nuclear is still an option

Topic: Supreme Court US Politics Nuclear option

It'll be interesting to see how the appointment of a new Supreme Court justice plays out. Here's my guess:

• Bush, who has been promising the Christian fundamentalists that Roe v Wade will get overturned, will feel compelled to nominate a judge who will vote to do just that.
• The Democrats will splutter, and then threaten to filibuster.
• The Republicans will exercise the nuclear option.
• The nominee will get approved over the strenuous objections of the Democrats.

I've said it before — the deal struck in the Senate over the nuclear option was just political cover for the Republicans. It never took the nuclear option off the table, and I expected the Republicans to use it someday anyway.

As Atrios reminds us, it's worth remembering that Clinton, even with a Democratic majority in the Senate, consulted with the Senate Republican leadership when making his appointments. Orrin Hatch even claimed in his autobiography that he suggested Ginsburg and Breyer to Clinton. Politics has always been nasty. But it hasn't always been as nasty as it is now.