AFTER THE PIETIES...

What can we expect after the week-long rebuke of the presidency of DonaldTrump that was cannily orchestrated by the late Senator John McCain, and performed before the nation in the form of his many eulogies by distinguished politicians of all persuasions? After the pieties of politicians in off-the-cuff or prepared remarks to the media and, through them, to the American people? After so much lip-service to the greatness of America and the virtues of bipartisan brotherhood? Can we expect more, um... bipartisanship?

Some hope! I suspect that we shall soon be returning to the spectacle of the United States Senate ramming the appointment of a far right-wing justice down the throats of an unwilling America. Will Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley accede to Democrats' requests to review tens of thousands of documents that are key to an understanding of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's credentials? Or will he continue in the Republican attempt to fast-track the nomination and assure Kavanaugh's swift appointment before the November election?

My bet's on the latter, despite the deplorable history of Republican refusal to even consider President Obama's supremely reasonable nomination by the assertion of a previously non-existent Senate rule about "election year" Supreme Court nominations--one that we have since learned to be cynically hypocritical; and despite the odious irony of a Supreme Court nomination by a man who is, if not yet actually proven criminal, then unquestionably corrupt. A man, too, who may well show up on the Supreme Court's docket and require unbiased review.

Will our Senate heed the posthumous entreaty by the distinguished member whose virtues it so loudly and piously proclaimed? Am I cynical to be sitting here, nursing my doubts?

Here's what David Leonhardt had to say about Republican hypocrisy in a New York Times editorial today. A brilliant commentary. Please be sure to read it.