42 Comments

People in my house are tired of me ranting about how the republicans have, once again, framed the issue in a false, but compelling, way. "Packing" the court has instantly become the official media term for being forced to consider balancing the court's disposition as a means of saving ourselves. I especially liked your point, Eric, about having the 8-person court forced on us by republicans who, of course, do not bat an eye when they mire themselves in hypocrisy.

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Mr. Boehlert, the answer lies with Biden. Each time he’s asked if he’ll “pack the Court”; he should answer that the Republicans have been “packing” Courts for years. When the Federalist Society has to approve nominations on political grounds. That’s packing. When McConnell refuses to even consider any appointment by President Obama; that’s packing.

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founding

Is it fair to turn the coverage at that point back on to the reporters themselves. “Are you for court packing”? Why don’t you ask Mitch McConnell who refused to seat Merrick a Garland and is shoving Amy Barrett down our throats, what do you call that?

Seriously what is the deal with this packing question, no one cares except the media, was there a memo that said packing is the “gotcha” question for Biden?

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I watched Lindsey Graham this morning make the most hypocritical opening statement in Senate history. It was absolutely sickening. Everything you stated is spot on. The only thing I would add is that voters that did not vote for Hillary four years ago, pissed off at how Bernie was treated by the DNC helped to bring us to this place. Had a relatively small amount of voters held their nose and voted for Clinton, this discussion of "Packing the Courts" would be moot. I hope voters have learned their lesson. You're never going to get the perfect candidate. But you can get the better candidate. VOTE!

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Nailed it again, Eric. Been shouting the same thing for weeks. Just another Republican manipulation of the language, the same way they’ve bastardized “Defund the Police.”

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Eric, you have a lot of sharp, perceptive people judging from your reply page. Congrats on all of the great comments here. There sure isn’t anything I can add !

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founding

Well Aaron Blake at the Wapo is having a temper tantrum... People, it is important to make the distinction that the GOP did not ***pack*** the courts, they “stacked” them. Thus the “but her emails” court packing question is fair game... Your large liberal news papers hard at work, sigh.

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I recommend "Hacking Your Mind" for insight into why this works and why the GOP favors it (PBS). Why the press parrots it is anybody's guess. Thanks for this.

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Time to play like the GOP. When the question comes up, simply smile and walk away. At this point, I do not give a daxx, what they think. Every day there is another news "blip", about the GOP cheating going full gear. Now, they get caught putting fake ballot boxes out, in CA i think it was. Two other states they were challenged for taking away ballot boxes. They will do whatever, whenever, wherever. I hope for the hell of it, they do load SCOTUS. That will be a nice "bitch slap" to Bitch McConnell. This would all be on him, for his dishonest Judiciary shenanigans. It doesn't look like McConnell is going to lose, and he has already stated his intentions as a Minority Leader in the Senate. With him, being voted out of the Senate is the only chance this country has to start rebuilding the Senate/Judiciary..

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When I read The Boys on the Bus, I thought, well, that's just them, at that moment. No. They all move in packs.

There's a great story at our local paper from before the internet about a human interest story that none of the reporters wanted to do. Why? Because it was human interest. It wasn't "meaty." When it was assigned to one reporter, the other reporters made fun of him and he asked to be taken off of the story ... ALTHOUGH HE WAS ON THE FRONT PAGE EVERY DAY. Why? Clips mattered less than being able to go to the cafeteria. And he's now a leading network correspondent. It would appear they take the attitude with them.

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