As the Biden administration winds down to its final week, Many People Are Saying™ that Merrick Garland turned out to be the worst attorney general in all of American history.
It always felt like making Garland Attorney General was just a middle finger to the Republicans who refused to vote on his SCOTUS nomination. That failed to account for the fact that Obama nominated Garland for SCOTUS largely because he was so middle-of-the-road (dare I say "milquetoast?") that he assumed Republicans could have no good reason to oppose him. Setting aside Obama's penchant for starting every negotiation from the middle (at best), I always felt like Dems gave lip service the Senate's failure to take up Garland's nomination being an affront to the Constitutional order of things but failed to take decisive action because they didn't particularly like him, assumed they'd spend the next thirty years worrying he'd be the unfortunate swing vote on every issue they cared about, and thought they'd do better during Clinton's first term. He was always the compromise choice. Nobody realistically could have thought Garland was the man for the post-January 6th moment. The once-and-future president attempted a violent overthrow of the American government. The response needed to be swift and severe to the point of sending a message not only to his supporters, but also to all future generations that such action cannot and will not stand. In Garland, the nation got an Attorney General who provided a week or so of "Yeah! Suck it Republicans" satisfaction for establishment Dems while being someone that nobody truly ever wanted and was never prepared to meet the moment. I guess we sure showed them. Thanks Joe.
I used to think John Ashcroft was the worst when he covered up the "immodest" statuary in the halls of Justice! I do wonder if Garland, having been a judge, had too much respect for, and was too swayed by fellow judges' opinions to recognize the naked partisanship behind them? His judicial temperament was clearly no qualification for being an aggressive federal top prosecutor! I so wanted Preet Bharara or Sally Yates for that job in 2021..
Thank you, Kevin. I confess that I wish someone with the appropriate legal chops would slap Marcy Wheeler on this issue. The lady doth protest too much.
It won’t surprise me if/when trump gives garland the Presidential Metal of Freedom for his work in paving the way for trump to return to the White House.
Maybe we say "Merrick Garland was the most spineless AG ever"?
It always felt like making Garland Attorney General was just a middle finger to the Republicans who refused to vote on his SCOTUS nomination. That failed to account for the fact that Obama nominated Garland for SCOTUS largely because he was so middle-of-the-road (dare I say "milquetoast?") that he assumed Republicans could have no good reason to oppose him. Setting aside Obama's penchant for starting every negotiation from the middle (at best), I always felt like Dems gave lip service the Senate's failure to take up Garland's nomination being an affront to the Constitutional order of things but failed to take decisive action because they didn't particularly like him, assumed they'd spend the next thirty years worrying he'd be the unfortunate swing vote on every issue they cared about, and thought they'd do better during Clinton's first term. He was always the compromise choice. Nobody realistically could have thought Garland was the man for the post-January 6th moment. The once-and-future president attempted a violent overthrow of the American government. The response needed to be swift and severe to the point of sending a message not only to his supporters, but also to all future generations that such action cannot and will not stand. In Garland, the nation got an Attorney General who provided a week or so of "Yeah! Suck it Republicans" satisfaction for establishment Dems while being someone that nobody truly ever wanted and was never prepared to meet the moment. I guess we sure showed them. Thanks Joe.
I used to think John Ashcroft was the worst when he covered up the "immodest" statuary in the halls of Justice! I do wonder if Garland, having been a judge, had too much respect for, and was too swayed by fellow judges' opinions to recognize the naked partisanship behind them? His judicial temperament was clearly no qualification for being an aggressive federal top prosecutor! I so wanted Preet Bharara or Sally Yates for that job in 2021..
I too wanted Sally Yates.
Thank you, Kevin. I confess that I wish someone with the appropriate legal chops would slap Marcy Wheeler on this issue. The lady doth protest too much.
It won’t surprise me if/when trump gives garland the Presidential Metal of Freedom for his work in paving the way for trump to return to the White House.
Can't believe nobody's naming Billy Barr, whose deceit and dereliction had more to do with Garland's failures than Garland himself did.