The continued — an increasingly curious — absence of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) from her duties in the upper chamber of Congress is becoming a growing thorn in the sides of the Democrats. Feinstein is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and her prolonged recovery from shingles has ground to a halt the Democrats’ ability to further pollute the judicial system with activist judges who have been nominated by Joe Biden’s puppeteers.
Over the weekend, Matt wrote a VIP column about Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asserting that the Republicans on the committee not let Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) get away with temporarily replacing Feinstein in order to proceed with the commiefication of the judiciary.
In a refreshing show of unity, Republican senators from various points along the GOP ideological spectrum are agreeing with Cotton. One of the first was conservative Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.):
I will not go along with Chuck Schumer’s plan to replace Senator Feinstein on the Judiciary Committee and pack the court with activist judges. Joe Biden wants the Senate to rubber stamp his unqualified and controversial judges to radically transform America.
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) April 17, 2023
Schumer is going to need some Republican defectors to make this work, which is why it was encouraging to see Judiciary Committee members Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) join Cotton and Blackburn in saying that they won’t go along with the Dems’ end-around.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has worked with Democratic senators to pass gun reforms and other bipartisan legislation, announced he would not back replacing her.
“I deeply respect Senator Feinstein, but this is an unprecedented request solely intended to appease those pushing for radical, activist judges,” Tillis wrote on Twitter.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) on the Senate floor made a similar case, saying, “Never, not once have we allowed temporary substitutes on committees and now is not the time to start.” He added that he hopes Feinstein recovers and comes back soon, but “Republicans are not going to … bail out Sen. Schumer or the Biden administration’s most controversial nominees.”
Cornyn does have his squishy moments, but Tillis can be positively awful at times, so this is very good news if it holds.
The Democrats have had a field day and free rein with the barely functional people they’ve been electing to high office. Senators who hang around seemingly forever — long past their usefulness dates — are a real problem and one of the greatest arguments for repealing the 17th Amendment. We talk about the obvious decline in Joe Biden now that he’s 80; Feinstein was 85 the last time she ran for reelection to a six-year term.
This isn’t an ageist rant. I’m not the youngest kid on the street anymore and don’t like to make any concessions to age. But I’m a writer and a comedian. If the good Lord lets me live into my late eighties, I’ll be telling jokes, not crafting legislation or making decisions regarding federal judges that contribute to the rapid deterioration of the republic.
If there is still a republic, that is.
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