On Saturday, writing for Vogue, columnist Molly Jong-Fast outlined how the push by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to lock down a 6-3 Supreme Court could cost him and his party everything.
"In the past two years, McConnell has defiantly blocked any legislation that has come from the Lower House, refusing to take up 395 House bills that have been sent to the Senate, a fact that he’s embraced by joyously tweeting a picture of a graveyard and calling himself the 'grim reaper of socialism,' and telling Fox News, 'They’ve been on full left-wing parade over there,'" wrote Jong-Fast. "But, of course, Grim Reaper Mitch doesn’t mean socialism; he means a functioning government, which McConnell effectively brought a halt to as soon as Republicans lost the House."
All the while, he "packed the courts with hundreds of conservative judges on the federal bench" and is itching to give Trump his third Supreme Court appointment with the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But, wrote Jong-Fast, it could come at a heavy price.
"The problem he will likely encounter is that slamming through a third nominee — and it looks like it will be Amy Coney Barrett, a favorite of the religious right — may backfire and could galvanize the Democratic base in a way few other things have, even their fervent desire to get rid of Trump," wrote Jong-Fast. "Americans know what is at risk here — significantly, a woman’s right to choose — and polls show they are not happy about it. Republicans are in the fight of their lives this election cycle (love to see it!) as they try to keep control of the Senate. But Colorado, Arizona, North Carolina, Maine, Iowa, Mississippi, Georgia, Montana, South Carolina, and maybe even Alaska could all be in play, especially now with a Supreme Court fight looming."
Furthermore, if Democrats win, some have signaled they will push to expand the court and wipe out the GOP's judicial supermajority overnight — meaning McConnell led his Senate majority off a cliff for nothing.
"For someone obsessed with keeping power, filling this seat in a nomination process that more than half the country says should wait until after the presidential election doesn’t seem like a very smart move for Mitch," wrote Jong-Fast. "It’s possible that filling this Supreme Court seat in the next few weeks will be the thing McConnell does that makes him and his party lose power for a decade or more — and boy, I, for one, would love to see it happen."