This has me wondering:
Washington Post reporter Robert Costa says that things are so bad for Trump’s reelection hopes, they’re hoping Clarence Thomas resigns and gives them a Supreme Court nomination to run on.
Joe Scarborough was discussing just how dire things look for the Trump team, especially with the Supreme Court.
“Well, to that point about nailing down the base first, Joe, I have a little bit of new reporting,” Costa said.
“There are some people inside of the White House that are around this president who are hoping at this point, knowing that it may not happen, but they are hoping that there might be a Supreme Court vacancy. Clarence Thomas, the justice since the early ’90s, could decide to retire. and as this White House really looks to galvanize that base, they are quietly preparing for the possibility of a Supreme Court vacancy, looking like people, like the judge Amul Thapar, a favorite of majority leader Mitch McConnell, Amy Coney Barrett from Indiana, another federal judge, and they’re looking at the possibility of an opening.”
Costa said they’re hoping to stoke the base with a SCOTUS culture war, but the suburbs are more focused on bringing back the economy
The only rational explanation I can think of for this sort of thinking is that their internal polling shows waning enthusiasm among the whackjobs. That’s a good thing, if it’s the case, though the fact is that rational explanations aren’t usually relevant when it comes to the very stable genius. If this is his idea, his minions may have no choice but to push it in order to make him happy.
Let’s deconstruct it and start by putting aside the fact that replacing one nutjob with another doesn’t make any substantial short term change on the court, except that the new judge will likely outlive the loathsome Thomas.
In order to please the base, which is already committed to vote for him, he would have to pick a total whackjob to replace Thomas, which is apparently true of both of those mentioned in the article. That person would have to be nominated, but not confirmed, prior to the election, in order to galvanize the base. McConnell would have to defer ramming the nomination through until after the election in order to keep the juice flowing.
Almost by definition, that person would be anathema to the now vast majority of people who have pretty much decided they will never vote for Trump, and the nomination would only provide further incentive for them to turn out and vote against him. Moreover, it would spell trouble for those Senators (looking at you, Susan) who are running for reelection in non deep red states. They will have to commit themselves one way or the other, and, particularly Susan, would not be able to get away with claiming to be “concerned” but waiting to hear what the nominee has to say.
The strategy hitherto has been to appeal to the nutjobs sub silentio (sort of) but minimize the perception of craziness to the maximum extent possible. That’s why they are seeking to have Obamacare declared unconstitutional, but also urging the court to not make it official until after the election. The public perception of the base is not good, and if they wind them up even more, it will simply rebound on the genius.
In short, it’s hard to see how an open Supreme Court seat helps them given the current state of polling, unless it is true that the base is getting tired of the genius. If that’s the case, the media appears to have missed it entirely, but then, most of the diners in the Midwest are probably closed, so they have no way of checking up on the deplorables.