By Matt Rooney
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Let’s set this up.
Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed on Saturday, Save Jerseyans, ending the most contentious, unnecessarily divisive Supreme Court confirmation process since Clarence Thomas (or possibly ever). Then the voters will do what they’ll do on November 6th.
The most likely result? Energized against Trump, Democrats take over the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in nearly a decade (just like they did in 2006 under Bush, and then Republicans did in 2010 under Obama), but more than likely with a slim majority of somewhere between 5-20 seats (about half the size of the GOP’s current majority).
Nancy Pelosi will, more than likely, lead that slim majority.
Pelosi’s majority will be populated by Democrats who won “red” or marginal seats masquerading as moderates. They might not have even supported her reelection bid. Can they be trusted to support her legislative initiatives? Let alone an inevitable clamor for impeachment? One which will be largely symbolic owing not only to the lack of substantive basis for it but also the likelihood that Republicans will retain the U.S. Senate, the body charged with convicting or exonerating impeached presidents.
They’ll huff. They’ll puff. But Trump’s house will stand.
Enter Cory Booker.
The guy who recently authored a book titled “United” has emerged as one of the most partisan and widely-panned figures of the Kavanaugh circus. More accurately: “Gropacus” (as he’s not-so-affectionately known around here) made a complete ass out of himself during those hearings and the craziness surrounding them, even going so far as declaring that Judge Kavanaugh’s innocence was irrelevant.
He’s been so bad that the wife of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul — who has partnered with Booker in the past on issues like criminal justice reform — felt compelled to write a letter to Booker asking him to cool his over-heated rhetoric.
Where does all of this leave Senator Gropacus?
My best educated guess, and it is a guess this far out:
Barring PROOF that Donald Trump is guilty of a criminal conspiracy (which hasn’t emerged in two years despite exhaustive media, legislative, and law enforcement digging), and assuming the currently robust economy doesn’t step off of a cliff, a majority of voting Americans will be pretty exhausted of the “resistance” by Election Day 2020.
If they ARE eager for someone other than President Trump, something I’m not sure will actually be the case, I’m nevertheless not convinced they’ll be inspired by the guy who has done nothing to unite Americans writ-large (or even his own party) during the last few weeks which, as Booker recognized, were his best chance for maximum visibility ahead of the presidential contest. That contest will begin in earnest after the midterms. Booker has actually gone OUT OF HIS WAY to divide us, hoping it’d get him the coverage he needs from HuffPo, MSNBC, Vox, etc., to move up in the pre-primary rankings (most put him pretty far back from the front at the moment).
Look to history. In 1976? Former Governor Jimmy Carter won running as the outsider and reformer “untainted” by Washington, D.C.
Booker has now made himself a symbol of the ugliness, pettiness, and general immaturity which most Americans believe makes our nation’s capital such a repugnant, unproductive place. He’s the anti-inspirational candidate.
We’ll see whether that makes him a better or worse option for the Democrat nomination. Our Dem friends need to do a bit of soul-searching assuming they’re capable of an introspective pursuit at this point in their history.
Win or lose in spring/summer 2020? I’m willing to wager that Booker is in undeniably worse shape for a hypothetical fall 2020 campaign, and Gropacus has no one to blame for that except himself.
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