Trumps Lawyer Made A Really Good Case Once For Sitting A New Senator Fast

[fleur-de-lisa]

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jay-sekulow-doug-jones-senate_us_5a316d01e4b091ca2684d925?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

Democrats are calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to seat Jones quickly, but McConnell indicated on Tuesday that the new senator will not be sworn in during the current session, which ends Dec. 22. Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill (R) said the earliest he can certify the election results is Dec. 26. The latest the state can certify the results is Jan. 3.

In 2010, Sekulow wrote that it was “outrageous” for then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to wait for the results of Brown’s election to be certified before seating him in the Senate. He accused Democrats of disenfranchising Massachusetts voters, and his organization, the American Center for Law and Justice, threatened to sue.

?There’s absolutely no reason to wait to seat Senator-elect Brown and with each passing day he is prevented from participating in the legislative process,” Sekulow wrote less than a week after Scott’s electoral victory. “This delay tactic along with reports that top Democrats continue to plot passage of health care reform show that its business as usual in Washington ignoring the will of Massachusetts voters and moving forward with a disturbing health care plan that America simply does not want.”

When Brown was elected, Reid said that Senate Democrats would halt work on the Affordable Care Act until Brown arrived. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) cited that precedent on Wednesday when he called for Republicans to delay a vote on their tax bill. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, called the idea of slowing down a vote “laughable.”

[unblock]

1. in fairness, there are a couple key differences.

the biggest difference by far is that republicans are *ssholes.


the much smaller difference is that brown was taking over a vacant seat, due to the passing of ted kennedy. so massachusetts was one vote short in the senate until brown was seated.

alabama, however, is not down one vote, because strange still has a vote in the senate until jones is seated.

i do think there's a difference between delaying things so that a state can have its proper 2 votes, vs. delaying things so they can replace one of the 2 senators with another. there's always a delay for that sort of thing even during normal elections, where there's a 2 month lame duck period.


that said, again, republicans aren't doing anything on the basis of proper ethics or consideration for democrats or the people of alabama. they're going to do what they want to do while they have 52 votes instead of 51 votes.

[onenote]

2. Sekulow was as bad a lawyer then as he is now.