Guy

Whoa. Scathing new motion from DOJ leaders — including Todd Blanche — explicitly calls on federal court to dismiss ballroom lawsuit. Insults the National Trust — "they suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly referred to as TDS." Reads like Trump wrote it.

Absolutely. Olive branches that were ignored: 1) Not making a stink over the Ginsburg nomination despite a more damning paper trail than Bork. 2) Not making a stink over the Breyer nomination. 3) GW Bush agreeing to nominate a controversial Clinton appellate pick Republicans blocked in his first batch of nominations in 2001. 4) Bipsrtisan agreement to withdraw several Bush nominees instead of ending the filibuster (only for Dems to renege next presidency). 5) Not making a stink over the Sotomayor nomination. 6) Not making a stink over the Kagan nomination. Let’s look at Dem escalations: 1) 1981-84: Even as Mondale was down by double digits in the polls, Dems refused to move on dozens of Reagan nominations just in case. The ABA is used as a partisan tool to smear several conservatives who become brilliant judges. 2) The unprecedented smear campaign to block Bork. 3) The unprecedented defamatory smear campaign to try to block Thomas. 4) Blocking numerous mainstream GHW Bush appellate nominees, including the moderate Roberts. 5) Trying to filibuster Alito (Obama voted for that filibuster). 6) Schumer—in 2007!—announces the Schumer Rule. GW Bush will not be allowed to fill a Supreme Court seat in the last two years of his second term when he doesn’t hold the Senate. 7) Breaking the bipartisan agreement to keep the filibuster for appellate nominees to fill seats Dems filibustered to hold open during Bush. 8) Trying to filibuster Gorsuch, and then slow-walking every nominee. 9) Defaming Kavanaugh with a blatantly false smear campaign. 10) Repeatedly threatening to pack the Court. 11) Slap on the wrist for an attempted assassination of a justice, after an unprecedented leak of a draft opinion, followed by slow-walking the dissent to increase the risk to the justices’ lives. Basic game theory says it’s Democrats’ turn to offer an olive branch if they want to stop the tit-for-tat, but their current m.o. is more escalations.

The Justice Dept’s theory of the case— that the group that single-handedly disassembled the Ku Klux Klan defrauded its donors by concealing that it was using paid informant to do that work and more— have about as much merit as the now-dismissed charges against Jim Comey, the charges against the members of Congress who never got indicted for telling service members they shouldn’t follow illegal orders, & the sandwich thrower a DC grand jury declined to indict.