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11/7: Scalia dies celebrating Romney election. Ginsburg resigns. David Cole and Liz Warren named to court by lame duck Obama. Repugnants filibuster draws nuclear option. Yagadda problem wit' dat?

by jollyroger 6/27/2012 - 7:04 pm

Just to flesh out the scenario, let us suppose that Scalia blew a brain aneurism reaching for a high note while jovially regaling fellow opera buff Ruth Ginsburg with his favorite Scarpia aria. "Presto, Nino, i fortissimo" urges the cagy Ginsburg, taking quick note of Scalia's reddening face. His body has barely hit the floor when she calmly conveys both the awful news and her own resignation to the White House. She fears that she may not herself survive till 2017.

 

Desperate to save some scrap of legacy, Obama names Elizabeth Warren (just narrowly defeated by Scott Brown in Massachusetts) and David Cole, (son and intellectual heir of Robert Cole, constitutional scholar and liberal giant of Berkeley's law faculty).

The predictable Repugnant howls are followed by a filibuster which is obviated when Joe Biden casts the deciding vote to uphold the ruling by newly appointed parliamentarian Tom Daschle who found against the attempt by Mitch McConnell to continue debate on the rule change for judicial confirmations first threatened when Dick Cheney presided over the Senate.

Lame duck coup or the salvation of the Republic

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Robert Cole's own hopes for a Supreme Court appointment had suffered a devastating blow when his star pupil turned his back on politics after helping to manage the successful election of Julie Conger to the Berkeley Mini Court, to pursue a career in stripping. (trying a third time to successful comment, oh those tubes!)
by jollyroger 6/27/2012 - 10:59 pm

Very funny. I was thinking a piece of Swiss steak stuck in his throat (that's really bad karma).

Perhaps extending the lunatic fringe further right creates cover for Roberts. 

by Oxy Mora 6/28/2012 - 8:08 am

Ironic - A piece of Taco shell or burrito?

by Resistance 6/28/2012 - 9:29 am (re: Oxy Mora)
Thanks. Bottom line, I seriously wish Reid had taken on the Senate 's paralysis with something approaching vigor, even beyond the "nuclear option " which concerned judge appointments only. Trouble is that without the filibuster each Senator loses the leverage of the anonymous "hold" and reforming that will be a heavy lift.
by jollyroger 6/28/2012 - 1:36 pm (re: Oxy Mora)

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