Earl Warren was the Republican governor of California before Eisenhower appointed him. Hugo Black was a Senator for decades. William Douglas was the first Chairman of the SEC back when the agency was created in the mid '30's. Thurgood Marshall reformed race law as an advocate for NAACP causes before moving onto the Court.
Now little pissant bench tools get moved up several notches or so, to be mischief makers. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh belong with Roberts and Alito, but none of the four belong on the nation's top court of last resort. Low quality people write low quality opinions which go against the public interest in having clean politics, and then they branch out from "money talks" politics spawned by Citizens United where branching out will get them to Roe and a hornets nest of trouble and discord.
Low quality prevails atop all three federal branches; but some Democrats are looking at progressive policy and saying senior party leadership has been remiss and complacent and needs replacement in the course of attaining at least legislative majority status (in one house or both). The Republicans on the other hand are admitting finally to being all Trump at heart, with the "Never Trump" rump faction being slowest to adapt. But not slow at all. And should we worry about Russians and their ways and means; what of the Israelis? They influence elections.
Romney schmoozed with, AND VISITED Bibi, conferring in secret during a pending election period - or have you forgotten that from insufficient coverage of the "foreign influence" dimension, back then? Is consistency only a hob-goblin of one not a beltway bunch inner party public or private sector functionary or consultant or media favorite from that locale? (Some have even used swamp and drainage metaphor in the course of kicking the can down to a new stretch of road, one which differs little from the earlier road, where metaphor trumps consistency.)
