Saturday, March 12, 2016

Flipping The Script on SCOTUS, Con't.

Meanwhile, President Obama has reportedly narrowed his SCOTUS pick down to one of three people as the game of brinksmanship gets underway in earnest.

The White House has narrowed its search for a U.S. Supreme Court nominee to three federal appeals court judges, Sri Srinivasan, Merrick Garland and Paul Watford, a source familiar with the selection process said on Friday.

Srinivasan, an Indian-American who served under presidents of both parties before President Barack Obama named him as an appellate judge, and Garland, considered but passed over for the Supreme Court twice before by Obama, are considered the leading contenders, according to the source and two other sources close to the process.

Obama is searching for a replacement for long-serving conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on Feb. 13. Senate Republicans have vowed not to hold confirmation hearings or an up-or-down vote on any nominee picked by the Democratic president for the lifetime position on the court.

Senate Republicans, hoping a candidate from their party wins the Nov. 8 presidential election, want the next president, who takes office in January, to make the selection.

A formal announcement could come as soon as Monday. That would give Obama the weekend to think about his final choice and make an announcement before Tuesday's presidential primary elections in five states including Florida and Ohio.

The big takeaway here is that Jane Kelly, the Iowa judge who was supposedly being vetted a few weeks ago as a direct challenge to current Senate Judiciary Chair Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, is not being mentioned as making this final cut.

Take that however you see it.  Kelly's name was still mentioned as being in play as recently as yesterday by the Washington Post, although that paper is reporting that the above-mentioned Sri Srivinasan is the current frontrunner.

Leading conservatives who focus on judicial nominations say that, if Srinivasan were nominated, their focus would be on his record, not his ethnicity or origins. But Curt Levey, executive director of FreedomWorks Foundation, said that, until Obama names his choice, conservatives will mainly work to bolster Senate Republicans’ argument that no nominee should be considered during the president’s final year.

To the extent that the White House weighs the nomination’s impact on the November election, Asian Americans are a small niche of voters but growing quickly. Over the past two decades, they have migrated from primarily supporting GOP presidential candidates to voting for Obama by a large majority — 73 percent — in 2012. Young Asian Americans, in particular, tend to be liberal, recent surveys have found.

For the Asian American electorate, “this is a real test to see whether they step up, if Sri Srinivasan were nominated,” said Vincent Eng, a Washington-based consultant who works on judicial nominations with Asian American organizations.

Matsuoka, of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, said that, no matter whom Obama selects this time, there also is “a long-range game. We know there are going to be opportunities. . . . There will be vacancies.”

“Why shouldn’t we have an [Asian American] Supreme Court justice?” said Lorna Ho Randlett, founder and co-chair of the Leader’s Forum, a business and civic leadership group for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. “If they’re qualified, and on the shortlist and ready to go, if not now, when?”

So, we'll see.

Trumpenacht

Well, just saw this happen in Dayton at the Trump rally that wasn't canceled today.




Please note you just saw a presidential candidate tell his supporters that "It's payback time, it's payback time" against those who do not support him.

Scene ends.

No Cinti For Old Trump


Donald Trump is no longer planning a rally in Downtown on Sunday afternoon.

The Secret Service security supporting the GOP presidential front runner's campaign could not complete its preparation work in time to hold the event at the Duke Energy Convention Center, said Eric Deters, a local spokesman for Trump's campaign.

"Trump wants to come here, and the campaign is still looking to find a location for either Sunday or Monday," Deters said.

Another rally scheduled for Friday in Chicago was postponed because of safety concerns. Supporters and protestors clashed at a campus arena where the rally was supposed to take place.

Shame.  I would have loved to see this town tell Trump to go to hell, with students from Xavier, UC, Miami of Ohio, NKU and Cincy State leading the way.

The billionaire real estate developer is scheduled to hold a rally in Doral, Florida, on Monday night.

Trump also plans to hold rally in Cleveland on Saturday afternoon.

The campaign had reserved Duke Energy Convention Center to hold a rally from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. City officials also said the campaign had inquired about holding a rally at Lunken Airport, but the city does not have enough parking to accommodate thousands of people at the East End airfield.

Holding a rally at Lunken would have been logistically easier for the Trump campaign, which recently held an event next to Trump's private plane at an airport hangar in Columbus.

We'll see if he still makes Dayton this afternoon.  Hell, he still may come here.  I don't buy the prep work argument at all, every venue has to be checked in advance.  There's nothing unusual about the Duke Energy Center either, it's right downtown off the 71-75 split.  Why is Dayton going ahead?

Who knows.  Trump is a master showman, in the Barnum sense.  Something about Cincy isn't right today for him.  He's a "winner" and "winners" don't cancel, especially when he needs Hamilton and Butler counties to win on Tuesday in a tight race with Kasich.

We'll see.

[UPDATE] And as soon as I get done writing this...




Looks like he's trying to throw off the protesters. I knew it.