The Ghost of Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton may no longer be an active politician, but her spirit haunts the nation.

I've heard a lot of grumblings about how the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg could have retired when Obama was President to allow him to choose a new justice before he left office.  And, even though Obama would have had a hard time getting a Ginsburg replacement through the Senate, especially in the last two years of his second term, Ginsburg didn't want to retire while Obama was in office anyway.  Seems she was so certain that Hillary Clinton would succeed him as President that she looked forward to retiring in 2017 so that the first female President could name another woman to replace her.

Now where would Justice Ginsburg get such an idea that Hillary's nomination for President and her  election to the Presidency were inevitable?  Seems that the good Justice, so right in many ways, was led astray by Hillary and by then-Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz into thinking there was no way any of those silly male Democrats running for their party's 2016 presidential nomination was going to get in Hillary's way and there was no way on God's not-so-green earth that she could be defeated by Donald Trump.  My guess is that HRC and DWS told RBG, "Don't worry - we got this!"

Seems Justice Ginsburg, like so many others, got played, and played in service of Debbie's Machiavellian methods and Hillary's massive ego.  Sure, she believed that Hillary would win in 2016 - heck, I did too, although I didn't vote for her - and so of course she thought Hillary would become the 45th U.S. President  and appoint a woman in her place, especially a woman as liberal as she was. 

And instead, we have Donald Trump, who now gets to replace Justice Ginsburg with a woman, and a right-wing one at that  - most likely an Irish Catholic jurist who will remind everyone why Americans hate Irish Catholics known for serving in public office.

Or just plain laugh at them.

I still can't get over the fact that no one, after all that's happened in the past three-and-a-half years, has written to me to apologize for laughing 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley out of the campaign.

Ruthless

I'm not going to comment on the life and legacy of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday, as many legal scholars, feminists, and feminist legal scholars are more qualified than I am who can do that.

I'm going to comment on how how this may completely f**k up the presidential election.

Ginsburg's death gives Trump the opportunity to fill a Supreme Court seat and cement a lasting conservative majority, one that could last until long after I'm dead.  And I'm almost 55.  And you know full well that Trump will try to fill it (in fact, he's already announced that he wants to appoint a woman, and soon) because Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said that the conditions that led him to block President Obama's attempt to nominate a justice to fill the seat vacated by the death of Antonin Scalia in 2016 - a President of one party and a Senate controlled by the other -  so close to the elections don't exist now, with the White House and the Senate both under Republican control . . . though we're even closer to the elections.  Besides, Trump wants to fill the seat quickly because he wants to fire up his base to come out and overwhelm Joe Biden.

Of course, this could have the unintended consequence of firing up Biden's base, a base fearful of Trump getting another four years and possibly replacing Stephen Breyer, who's no spring chicken himself, or Sonia Sotomayor, who has diabetes.   Which means that for once, the Democratic base will actually keep the judiciary in mind for a change when they go to the polls.  But even if Biden wins, a new justice will likely be confirmed by the lame-duck Republican Senate before January.  And for all we know, there may be no vacancies during a Biden administration. 

Justice Ginsburg was hoping that Trump wouldn't get a chance to chose her replacement, but there is something resembling a bright side regarding the two men Trump has appointed to the Court.  Both Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have ruled against Trump's repeated efforts to prevent his tax retunes from being released, letting Trump know that they're not his bitches.  And Justice Gorsuch also wrote a thoughtful opinion regarding the sovereign rights of Native Americans to prosecute justice on their lands in Oklahoma.  And because the Democrats in the Senate have some leverage, a Trump appointment is not a foregone conclusion.  Also, Trump is no lawyer.  On the down side - Mitch McConnell is.

Time to think about adding six more justices.  I think Franklin Roosevelt was on to something.

I hope Trump at least makes an effort to promote diversity with his next Supreme Court nominee by nominating a justice from an unrepresented group.

I hope he nominates a Protestant.

Black humor there . . .

The Penske File

Roger Penske's auto parts company looks to a be a big winner in the shakeup affecting the American automotive industry. Penske's namesake transportation services company, which already sells Daimler's Smart car in the United States, has acquired GM's Saturn brand.

Why is this good? Well, it will keep Saturn dealers in business and save jobs. And, despite the brand's loss of direction in this past decade, it continues to have a good reputation for quality service and no-haggling deals. Penske will continue to sell GM-made cars for a couple of years - sorry, no Astras - and after 2011, the firm will sell cars from other manufacturers.

The sad irony is that Saturn started out as an effort by GM to win buyers back from imports, and it succeeded at first. But as subsequent product became more generic and efforts at carving out a new image for the division failed, the General has had to give up on the venture and concentrate on its more mainstream brands. Penske will have to find another source for Saturn vehicles, and there's no other domestic manufacturing base he can turn to, unless he wants to sell Fiskers or Texas-made DeLoreans. What's left? You got it.

Saturns for the 2012 model year might come from Renault or possibly even from a Chinese company.

Meanwhile. . . . After years of a huge German and Japanese presence in the U.S. automobile market, the pending sale of Chrysler's assets to Fiat of Italy seemed to complete the domination of the American highway by the old members of the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis. Not so fast. Chrysler's stiffed bondholders, whose intransigence put the automaker in bankruptcy in the first place, petitioned the Supreme Court to block the sale approved by a New York bankruptcy judge, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg - who must have had a bad experience with a Dodge - temporarily delayed the sale pending a review by her and her colleagues. If the delay goes on long enough, the Fiat-Chrysler deal could be scuttled and the company liquidated. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, Il Duce, would not be pleased.

And if that happens, how would Marchionne get Fiat back into the U.S. market?

Hmm, maybe he should call Roger Penske . . .