GOP Primaries/Caucuses Discussions, Jokes and Predictions

[Tyrannical]

Trump will offer Cruz that open Supreme Court spot if he drops out.....

[tuco]

Its kind of interesting to be able to influence the composition, thus opinion, of the Supreme Court like that. If any institution should be independent its the Supreme Court or?

[Forty Two]

What manner of picking judges would be best?

[Hermit]

What manner of picking judges would be best?

President nominates a candidate. Senate checks credentials of candidate. If approved by Senate. candidate gets appointment. If not, President nominates another candidate. Rinse. Repeat. In short, the existing one. Filibusters or other attempts to evade going through the normal process is a perversion of it.

[pErvinalia]

And life membership is obscene. Each judge should be up for some form of independent review every ten (? or however many) years.

[pErvinalia]

Coolest (read: craziest) theory yet!

Hi Mark

I have been a sporadic fan of yours for years, and I particularly enjoyed your "The March of Trump, and the Feel of Bern".

But here's a thought. Suppose Bernie wins the popular vote for the Democrat nomination, but Hillary leapfrogs him using her super-delegates. Bernie will be mad, but his supporters will be madder still.

Meanwhile, Trump has to choose a running mate, a Veep. Suppose he invites Bernie!!! It is just the sort of maverick thing that Trump loves to do, and it would make sense at several levels.

First, Veep is a meaningless non-job unless the president dies in office. So there is not much to lose.

Second, it would re-inforce the notion that this election is not Left vs Right, but Establishment vs anti-Establishment.

Third, it would pull in all those madder-than-hell Bernie supporters - which could be important if the polls show Hillary leading.

Regards
Bill Tomlinson

http://www.steynonline.com/7466/feeling-too-much-bern

[Svartalf]

crazy indeed, the Trumpster would not invite a marxist to be his veep... he's just coasting on the GOP crazy vote, and he'll ride the ticket with a more reasonable GOP person, preferably a woman or minority cote puller...

[Hermit]

Each judge should be up for some form of independent review every ten (? or however many) years.

That presents a danger. Once the appointments are made, judges are supposed to be free from outside influences. Reviews are never neutral.

[pErvinalia]

Well then have fixed terms. Having geriatric judges isn't sane.

[Forty Two]

What manner of picking judges would be best?

President nominates a candidate. Senate checks credentials of candidate. If approved by Senate. candidate gets appointment. If not, President nominates another candidate. Rinse. Repeat. In short, the existing one. Filibusters or other attempts to evade going through the normal process is a perversion of it.

I agree, with the sole caveat that I am a fan of the actual filibuster, and not the new fangled pussy version. Filibusters are fine with me if the Senator actually has to hold the floor, physically, like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington kind of filibuster. The fictional filibuster we have now, where they "declare" the filibuster and it stands until a cloture vote is horse shit. A real filibuster is a testament to the notion that a single lone voice could be the voice of reason in sea of wrongheadedness.

[Forty Two]

And life membership is obscene. Each judge should be up for some form of independent review every ten (? or however many) years.

Well, it's the life membership that takes the politics OUT of it, whereas putting them up for some review every so many years means that the politics of that review will be key. An "independent" review is impossible. There will be politics in appointing the reviewers, and politics in the review process.

It is life membership which puts a judge out of reach of the political parties.

[Forty Two]

Well then have fixed terms. Having geriatric judges isn't sane.

Age discrimination is the only sane way to go.

[JimC]

Or better still, keep politicians away from choosing judges...

[pErvinalia]

Well then have fixed terms. Having geriatric judges isn't sane.

Age discrimination is the only sane way to go.

So there's no evidence in your world of reduced cognitive abilities with great age and things like senility and the like? Ok. I really must visit under your rock one day. I'm keen to know what it's like to live under one...

[Svartalf]

Or better still, keep politicians away from choosing judges...

Seriously, that's not a worse way than having democratically elected ones... at least, one can hope the politicos will choose competent jurists which is more than can be expected of the populace