Trump's Wall And Judges-- A Couple Of Petards Of Theirs The GOP Got Hoist On This Week

In his war against humanity, Señor Trumpanzee took some fire yesterday from his own side. On Fox and Fiends a neo-Nazi pundit, Michelle Malkin, who is known on the far right fringes, said "Well, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I’m not going to spin it. I wish I could but I can’t. This is a cave. This was a blink." She was talking about Trump backing down from shutting the government after he was told he isn't getting any money for the wall the American Nazis want to build. "We have to hold the Republicans [accountable], particularly Mitch McConnell, who has been in office since 1984 and has never been able to get this deal done because he is afraid of a shutdown. But now look at what the White House is forced to do: scrounge around for $600 million in the defense budget in order to fund a puny 100 miles? As if border security is an afterthought." Others on the extreme right are saying the same thing, especially Ann Coulter, who was screeching some nonsense about not voting for Trump. Delusional and frothing at the mouth, she also claimed that "most of his supporters" will not vote for him if the wall isn't built, calling his presidency "a joke... They’re about to have a country where no Republican will ever be elected president again." These Nazis get so worked up. Trump unfollowed Coulter on Twitter this morning. Take that!

Ben Shapiro has already beaten them to it Tuesday in the U.S. version of the Völkischer Beobachter. "It’s a pretty gutless move," wrote Shapiro, "for the administration to back down from a fight over the wall after revving up Republicans for precisely that fight... backing off a fight is a mistake. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is about to send $4.8 billion to Mexico in development aid. So much for Mexico paying for the wall. Trump voters should be, at the very least, disquieted by Trump’s willingness to back down once again from his pledge on the border wall. Combined with his reprioritization of criminal justice reform, Trump looks not so much tough on crime as ambivalent about it."

As if that weren't enough for the far right to have to swallow, the other big deal for them-- the rush to get all Trump's extremist and unqualified judges confirmed-- took a hit yesterday too. Under pressure from progressives, Schumer announced he's not agreeing to a customary year-end package of judicial nominees.

Schumer and his Democratic colleagues are in no mood to agree to a year-end deal after a federal judge in Texas struck down the entire Affordable Care Act last week, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

The judge, Reed O’Conner, was a George W. Bush appointee confirmed by the Senate in a voice vote in 2007-- when Democrats held the majority.

Schumer brushed off questions about if letting O'Connor clear by a voice vote in 2007 was a "bad deal," telling NBC's Chuck Todd on Sunday that senators couldn't predict how a district judge would rule more than a decade after his nomination was before the Senate.

"There was no deal, I don't think, on this judge. He was a nominee to the district court. No one brought up anything. No one knew how he'd rule in the future. And you know, it's an awful ruling. Let's make no mistake about it," Schumer said on Meet the Press on Sunday.

Senate Democrats are also upset over Republicans not respecting the Senate’s blue-slip tradition, which gives both senators from a judicial nominee’s home state power to hold up his or her nomination.

Senate leaders usually agree to a package of judicial and executive nominees before major holiday recess. Judicial nominees, in particular, have been a top priority of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who views them as the party’s best chance to shape the political leaning of the country for decades.

But progressives skewered Schumer after he agreed to similar packages in August and October in exchange for letting vulnerable incumbents hit the campaign trail. He’s been tight lipped this week about if he would agree to such a deal as Congress looks to wrap up its work for the year.

“Our job right now is to get the government funded without a wall. We have had no discussion about judges. None,” Schumer told reporters during a weekly leadership press conference, where he declined twice talk about a potential agreement.

Schumer has faced heavy pressure from liberal activists not to agree to an end-of-the-year deal.

“Especially in light of the Texas judge’s ruling last week ruling ObamaCare unconstitutional, it would be insane to continue to give a free pass to lower-court judges that are ideologically extreme,” said Brian Fallon, a former aide to Schumer who is now the executive director of Demand Justice, a group opposed to President Trump’s efforts to reshape the federal judiciary.

“The average Trump judge is even more conservative than the judges that George W. Bush nominated,” he said. “The sort of politicized ruling that we saw last week is going to be more the norm with these Trump judges.

“It rings hollow when Democrats vocally complain about a ruling like last week’s but then revert to form and continue to mindlessly approve more of Trump’s judges,” Fallon added.

Schumer has not faced similar pressure publicly from members of his own caucus.

...Josh Nelson, a co-director of CREDO Action, said they were “surprised” and “pleased” that Schumer did “the right thing and block a year-end package of Trump judicial nominees.”

“Schumer appears to have waken from his slumber...As the recent Affordable Care Act decision in Texas made all too clear, the stakes are too high for Democrats to continue rubber-stamping Trump's judicial nominees,” he added.

Fallon, in a statement on Wednesday, called Schumer’s decision a “huge breakthrough.”

...Republicans touted judicial nominees as one of the main reasons they should keep control of the Senate heading into November’s midterm. In addition to confirming two Supreme Court nominees and solidifying its conservative majority, they’ve set a record for the number of appeals judges confirmed during a president’s first two years.

They confirmed Jonathan Kobes, Trump’s 30th circuit court judge, just last week. Vice President Pence broke a tie vote to win Kobes’s confirmation to the Eighth Circuit.

The record for the number of circuit judges approved during a president’s first two years was previously held by President George H.W. Bush, who got 22 appeals court judges confirmed during his administration's first two years.

Republicans have also infuriated Democrats for advancing nominees even when a home-state senator didn’t return a “blue slip,” a sheet of paper that indicates whether or not they support the nominee.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) announced last year that he would move judicial nominees even though home-state Democratic senators withheld blue slips for those nominees.

Democrats were furious when Grassley held an October hearing for 9th Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Eric Miller, even though Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) declined to give him blue-slip approval.

The Senate has confirmed several circuit court nominees even when a Democratic senator didn’t return their blue slip, including David Stras to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit and David Porter to serve on the 3rd Circuit.

Grassley also advanced Ryan Bounds's 9th Circuit nomination to the floor even though neither home-state senator-- Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Ron Wyden (D-OR)-- returned their blue slips. But Bounds's nomination was ultimately withdrawn when it became clear he did not have the 50 votes needed from Republicans.

I guess this early morning tweet today was Señor T's response to Coulter and Malkin and the others on the extreme right attacking him for caving to the Democrats on funding the government. Was he signaling his base that the wall's not that big a deal after all?