Up Chuck!

Chuck Schumer just agreed to a deal with Mitch McConnell that will fast-track 15 judicial nominations through the Senate, including one rated "unqualified" by the ABA, and, in return, he got...virtually nothing.

Schumer's supposed take from this deal was that a couple of the 15 judges were Obama appointees, but they were likely to be confirmed anyway. In addition, he got to re-nominate a Democratic seat on the NLRB, but this does not guarantee confirmation. Schumer also got McConnell to release 85,000 documents regarding Brett Kavanaugh, documents that were already under a FOIA request and legally belong to the citizens of the United States.

Worse, Schumer agreed to the confirmation of a Republican seat on the SEC but somehow managed to screw up the nomination of a Democrat for that body. Usually, votes for SEC positions are paired together so that both parties have an incentive to get them confirmed. Because of Schumer's foul-up, the Republican seat has now been confirmed, giving GOP Senators absolutely no incentive to vote for the Democratic nominee. This means the SEC, which is bad enough as it is, could have a 3-1 Republican split for the next few years.

Most importantly, Schumer's agreement actually provides even more Senate floor time for McConnell to do as he wishes. In fact, it seems probable that there wouldn't have been enough floor time available until the end of the session to confirm all of these 15 judges and McConnell would have had to sacrifice more of them if he wants to act on Kavanaugh or other pieces of legislation. That is especially important if the Democrats win the House because, cynic that I am, I have no doubt that the GOP will make another run at repealing the ACA during the lame duck session, especially now that McCain is gone. It would be Paul Ryan's cruel denouement to his fraudulent career.

Schumer's defense seems to be that these judicial nominees would be confirmed anyway and that his members wanted to get back to their states for the campaign season. As Harry Reid's deputy chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, notes, however, both these assertions are false. The reality is that Democrats would only have to keep one Senator in Washington to extend debate on each of these judicial nominees, while Republicans would have to have 51 Senators present to actually move forward. The asymmetry in favor of the Democrats is enormous and Schumer has basically thrown that away. And those red-state Democratic Senators would still be able to be back home defending their seats. Jentleson adds that Democrats might actually have had a chance to block some of the nominees but would, in any case, have the opportunity to harp on " the ability of a [president] implicated in federal crimes to make lifetime appointments." That seems an especially important point to drive home in order to lay some groundwork for voting against Kavanaugh.

One has to wonder what Schumer is thinking. Surely, McConnell would not have agreed to this deal if the shoe were on the other foot. And this is just the kind of capitulation that turns off the most activated Democratic voters. Jentleson concludes, "Senate rules give the leaders virtually zero power. The power comes from norms, obedience and persuasion. If you can get senators behind you, you can wield a lot of power. If you can't, you're... not a real leader". It's hard to argue with that assessment after Schumer's latest capitulation.