Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) agrees that President Joe Biden's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court is qualified, but he's already cooking up a cynical excuse to vote against her confirmation.
The Kentucky Republican "exemplifies the triumph of partisanship over duty to country," wrote Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, and she said the excuses he offers for that "ruthless partisanship" usually end up revealing his only objective is gaining and keeping power.
"He’s at it again. He conceded there is 'no question' that President Biden’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, is qualified," Rubin wrote. "So he’s voting for her? Don’t bet on it. And his reason for opposing her, in all likelihood, is nothing short of ridiculous: Liberal interest groups back her."
McConnell infamously blocked Barack Obama's nominee Merrick Garland for months before the 2016 election and then rushed Donald Trump's nominee Amy Coney Barrett in the weeks before the 2020 election, and Rubin can only guess what his reasons for opposing Ketanji Brown Jackson.
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"One explanation might be that the MAGA base is so soaked in white grievance that the prospect of a Black woman on the court would enrage them in an election year," she wrote. "For proof, just listen to right-wing provocateurs, including a couple of senators, who label her a beneficiary of affirmative action."
"Another possible explanation is that McConnell thinks Democratic presidents should never get their choice on the court," Rubin added. "That sure seems plausible given his perfectly consistent record in thwarting the appointments of Obama and Biden while enabling Republican nominees. This is the gob-smacking triumph of partisanship that never permits the other side to 'win.' It defies the spirit of democracy, in which the rules apply to everyone equally, losers allow winners to govern, and voters get to see the results of their choices. The 'we never lose' mentality is the same poisonous view that leads to voter suppression and the subversion of elections."
