In an interview with MSNBC on Monday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indulged herself and viewers in just a teensy-weensy bit of political hyperbole, insisting that the vacant Supreme Court seat is just one sign of many that Republicans are bloodthirsty animals creeping out of the woods to steal America’s children and…well, something! Something bad!
“A great part of the west is on fire. Our south — the gulf coast is battered by hurricanes,” Pelosi said. “We have a pandemic in the country. We’re fighting for our heroes, our state and local government and federal employees who our health care, our first responders, our teachers, our teachers, our teachers, our sanitation, transportation workers.
“We want them to test, trace, treat, wear masks, separate and the rest and we need public employees to do that. So we’re not about shutting down government. And it’s not a lever,” Pelosi continued. “By the way, the Republicans don’t believe in governance. It’s a welcome thing for them to shut down government. That’s why they have done it over and over. But in addition to that, you think if we shut down government they would say, ‘okay, now we won’t move forward with the justice?’ No, they won’t. They won’t. Because they are on a path to undo the Affordable Care Act. They’re on a path to undo a woman’s right to choose and there are many more issues that relate to the LGBTQ community.”
She finished with this: “Clean air, clean water, pollution. They’re coming after your children. Protect your children from what they are trying to do in this court.”
In terms of her “shut down the government” bit, Pelosi was responding to leftists – Michael Moore the most prominent among them – who have floated the idea of Democrats refusing to pass a continuing resolution bill, defunding the federal government entirely, and making it impossible for the Senate to sit in session and confirm Trump’s replacement. It appears that Pelosi recognizes this as the dead-end street that it so obviously is.
As for the rest? Your guess is as good as ours! We can only assume that Pelosi sees that there is virtually nothing she can do to stop Trump and Mitch McConnell from fulfilling their constitutional duties by naming and confirming a new Supreme Court justice to the bench. This fact appears to have driven her quite mad.
Well…madd-er.