There’s never been a successful filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee in history — but that won’t stop the Democrats from trying! The hard-headed minority is insisting that it’ll pull off what no party in America ever has: blocking Neil Gorsuch from an up-or-down vote. Nevermind that Democrats blasted the GOP for threatening the same thing under President Obama. As far as Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is concerned, some political views were only meant to last as long as the party’s power does.

The Democrats’ outrage over the filibuster seems to be one of them. As recently as 2013, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) shamed the GOP for considering the very thing she’s advocating today! “We need to call out these filibusters for what they are — naked attempts to nullify the results of the last presidential election… If Republicans continue to filibuster these highly qualified nominees for no reason other than to nullify the president’s constitutional authority, then senators not only have the right to change the filibuster rules, senators have a duty to change the filibuster rules.” If you looked up the definition of hypocrisy in the dictionary, this would be it.

And here’s the kicker. These same senators — Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Dick Durbin, Patty Murray, Patrick Leahy, Ron Wyden, Jack Reed, Tom Carper, Bill Nelson, Debbie Stabenow, Maria Cantwell, and Bob Menendez — all supported Neil Gorsuch’s 2006 nomination. Did the president’s Supreme Court pick suddenly become unqualified? Not according to the American Bar Association, which gave the 49-year-old its highest recommendation. As far as the GOP is concerned, it’s only a matter of how — not whether — Gorsuch will be confirmed. Monday afternoon, the Senate Judiciary Committee cleared the final hurdle before the real showdown begins, voting Gorsuch to the floor along party lines.

At least some Democrats seem to understand that keeping Gorsuch from his seat could force them to lose theirs! Blocking the president’s pick — especially when so many Americans listed SCOTUS as a top concern in the November elections — would put Democrats on the wrong side of voters, again. And in the states that Trump carried, that may as well be political suicide. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and Joe Donnelly (D-IN) seemed to grasp that, announcing their intent to vote for Gorsuch. “He has a record as a balanced, meticulous, and well-respected jurist,” Heitkamp said late last week. Unfortunately, colleagues like Feinstein don’t agree. “When President-elect Trump is willing to support reasonable politics and nominees, I’ll hear him out. But this committee has a vital role to protect the Constitution…” It that was not such a deceptive statement it would be comical. Since when have radicals like Feinstein ever cared about protecting the Constitution? Their only interest has been in finding activist judges to carry out agendas they could never pass legislatively.

Meanwhile, if there is drama on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) insists it will be short-lived. “What I can tell you is that Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed this week,” he told reporters. Senate Republicans like Chuck Grassley (R-IA) warned the Democrats four years ago not to go through with their plans to blow up the judicial confirmation process. But then-Sen. Harry Reid didn’t listen and pushed the plunger down on the dynamite, shattering the 225-year-old tradition. Instead of requiring 60 votes to end debate on a nomination, liberals lowered the threshold to 51. They call it the “nuclear option” — and rightly so, since it’s about to mushroom into something Chuck Schumer never thought possible.

What goes around comes around. And now, under a Republican president and Senate, the Left is on the wrong side of the same rules it manipulated. To pitch a fit at this point, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) argued, is like “an arsonist complaining about a fire.” FRC has been a vocal proponent of Gorsuch’s — not because he agrees with us on the importance of life and religious liberty, but because he recognizes the Constitution does. “Judge Gorsuch’s testimony, and the testimony of witnesses who actually know him, creates a dilemma for anybody desperately searching for a reason to vote oppose his nomination,” Grassley wrote in a new column. “Because if you’re voting on qualifications and not politics, it’s an easy yes.” Americans, Democrat and Republican, want justices who follow the letter of the law. It’s a shame their liberal senators don’t.

Originally published here.

After 18 Holes, Trump Tees Up Health Care

President Trump didn’t just play golf Sunday, he narrowed the gulf on his health care repeal. After a round with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), one of the House bill’s biggest opponents, the Kentucky leader seemed far more open to the second reincarnation of the plan. “I continue to be very optimistic that we are getting closer and closer to an agreement on repealing Obamacare,” he told reporters after the outing.

But hitting the greens isn’t nearly as important as saving Americans some green. For conservatives in both chambers, that was one of the biggest sticking points on Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) American Health Care Act. Determined to keep costs down, the House Freedom Caucus stopped a plan that some people believe wasn’t as strong as it could have been. In the end, they may have done their party a favor. With just one week to go before the Easter recess, GOP leaders are crafting another plan to replace Obama’s signature failure that appears would, in fact, reduce health care premiums costs.

So while liberals are hoping Republican leaders have moved on from the topic, the evidence points to anything but. I can tell you from my conversations with House leaders over the weekend: the health care debate is still very much alive. “Anybody (especially Fake News media) who thinks that Repeal & Replace of ObamaCare is dead does not know the love and strength in R Party!” Trump tweeted. He followed it up by posting: “Talks on Repealing and Replacing ObamaCare are, and have been, going on, and will continue until such time as a deal is hopefully struck.” Of course, our primary concern is making sure the final measure includes strong pro-life language — everything from keeping abortion-on-demand out of health care savings accounts to defunding Planned Parenthood. We’ll keep up that fight until the worst mistake of the last eight years is on the trash heap where it belongs.

Originally published here.

In Ankara, Tillerson Talks Turkey

Just because the administration has changed doesn’t mean the plight of overseas Christians has. Slowly but surely, President Trump’s new administration is acting to give new hope to the persecuted — including U.S. citizens like Andrew Brunson, an American pastor behind bars in Turkey. Last October, he and his wife, Norine, who served more than 20 years in the country, were arrested and charged with “membership in an armed terrorist organization.” Although his wife was released, Pastor Brunson has been jailed for months without a scrap of evidence. “Will the Turkish government face no consequence for stubbornly continuing to hold an American citizen as a political prisoner?” Pastor Brunson said in a statement.

Back on American soil, Norine has been desperately working for her husband’s freedom — a goal that seems much more realistic under this White House. On Thursday, the Brunsons had a major breakthrough in their case when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson agreed to meet with Norine in Ankara. “On Monday, Andrew told me he felt the Lord had said I would meet with Secretary of State Tillerson,” she wrote. “On Tuesday I was told by the embassy and another senator that the meeting would NOT happen. I decided to come to Ankara anyway and arrived last night. I met with another significant person in the State Department early afternoon, then late afternoon was told the Secretary would meet with me.”

Although no one is quite sure when or even if Pastor Brunson will be released, they are certain the Trump administration is taking the issue seriously — which is a welcome relief after eight years of Obama’s indifference. Hopefully, Secretary Tillerson is starting to gain a better appreciation of religious liberty in crises like these. America is still bruised after the devastating policies of the last administration — which refused for years to call Christian genocide by its name. But there’s a definite sea change underway, as the State Department starts to take these cases seriously. Just think: Pastor Saeed Abedini’s family had to wait two years to meet with the Obama administration. The Brunsons waited just over two months. That’s progress!

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.