Monday Open Thread [3.4.13]

Thomas Ferraro highlights a departure from the “big package” reform bills of the past regarding gun control. As Ferraro explains, “President Barack Obama’s fellow Democrats in the Senate have spread his gun-control proposals across four bills in an effort to get at least some of the less controversial measures – such as expanded background checks for gun buyers – passed into law…By breaking Obama’s gun-control agenda into pieces, supporters hope to avoid having a less popular proposal such as the assault weapons ban contribute to the rejection of other proposals, aides said.”

President Obama “is moving quickly to change the face of the federal judiciary by the end of his second term, setting the stage for another series of drawn-out confrontations with Republicans in Congress,” according to the Washington Post. About time. Fill every single Federal District Judge and Magistrate vacancy accross this land. Fill every single Circuit Court vacancy. Flood the GOP with thousands of nominations and dare them to filibuster.

“The president has named three dozen judicial candidates since January and is expected to nominate scores more over the next few months, aides said. The push marks a significant departure from the sluggish pace of appointments throughout much of his first term, when both Republicans and some Democrats complained that Obama had not tried hard enough to fill vacancies on federal courts.”

“The new wave of nominations is part of an effort by Obama to cement a legacy that long outlives his presidency and makes the court system more closely resemble the changing society it governs.”

So that is good news. The bad news is that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is saying she has no plans to retire, according to Jeffrey Toobin.

Said Ginsburg: “There will come a point when I — It’s not this year. You can never tell when you’re my age. But, as long as I think I have the candlepower, I will do it. And I figure next year for certain. After that, who knows?”

Ginsberg should retire in the next two years to quarantee a liberal replacement nominated by President Obama.

Michael Kinsley chronicles how Republicans, and their affiliated media, are complaining “loudly about feeling bullied by their opponents.”

“Big, bad President Obama, creepy Harry Reid, that B-word Nancy Pelosi, and the rest of the gang of toughs called the Democratic Party are picking on the poor defenseless GOP. As a campaigning theme, it seems insane. The GOP has long prospered by portraying Democrats as the wimps, dangerously weak and unfit for command. Does the name Michael Dukakis ring a bell? And in really heady moments, like 1984, when Reagan earned his second term, or 1994 and 2010, when sweeping victories in off-year elections seemed to foretell an imminent landslide, Republican fantasies of one-party rule involved the triumph of their party, not humiliation by the other side.”

“In fact, moaning about how weak you are compared with the opposition seems so obviously a political mistake that we can only reach one conclusion: This must be sincere.”

Remember, it is the bullies themselves that always cry loudest about being hit back.