11:33 a.m.
Judge Neil Gorsuch says he can't comment on whether former Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland was treated fairly.
Gorsuch is President Donald Trump's nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Garland was originally nominated for the seat by former President Barack Obama, but he was blocked by Senate Republicans who said the next president should make the pick.
Gorsuch declared that he "can't get involved in politics," in response to a question from Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy. The nominee added that it would be "imprudent" for him to discuss political disputes.
Many Democrats are still furious that Republicans blocked Garland, and several have mentioned his failed nomination in their statements and questioning.
The man was born and raised into politics, mom being a Gipper EPA knife-wielding gut-the-agency's-effectiveness boss. He is neck deep in it, everybody knows that, and a response like that, if not a falsehood what should it be called? He knows. He sidesteps. In full Gorsuchian candor?
At any rate, tune time. Is Mitch ready? Is that a fact? Is he ready, for the big four years of . . .
. . . mirroring his prior eight years' actions?
Actually, little payback: In context, Mitch gets the pension rights and paycheck either way, his seniority already entrenched in the Senate country club, so theater payback is not real world payback, or only in a sense perhaps, but the suffering lands elsewhere than within the beltway maze. Ask Gary Gensler, (quintessential Goldman Sachs/beltway bureau maze navigating animal), or Phil Gramm or Alan Greenspan about credit swaps and any personal suffering personally "paid back." They got passed over when the mischief hit the fan on Bush/Bernanke's watch. Does any reader now know whether Greenspan gives Goldman Sachs speeches these days, for appropriate fees? Or is he fully retired/repentant? Phil Gramm, where is he now?
UPDATE: Mitch now sits in the majority leadership chair and the spouse is back to bringing in a double-dip taxpayer financed paycheck bonanza. Of course she will work hard, in her Cabinet leadership role, independent of any conflicting interest that might arise between her and Mitch because that's how things're done, DC duo style; little payback, family business spanning generations, as with Bush folks, Gorsuch folks. Then there are ordinary folks. No government paycheck, perhaps except for Social Security, which Ryan meanly covets for reasons unknown and incomprehensible to ordinary folks. He's Ryan. Safe gerrymandered district. Secure pension, paycheck, health plan. Isn't that enough to explain his hostile predilections?