Some Democrats need to
read the United States
Constitution more
closely, as a number of them
are calling President Donald
Trump’s nomination of Judge
Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme
Court “illegitimate.”
New York’s own junior
Senator and former Presidential
wannabe, Kirsten Gillibrand,
tweeted this week,
“I will not meet with Judge
Amy Coney Barrett. This
nomination process is illegitimate.
I refuse to participate
in the further degradation of
our democracy and our judiciary.”
Democrats obviously are
vehemently opposed to the
prospect of a solid conservative
majority on the Supreme
Court for decades to come,
but to say the nomination of
Barrett is “illegitimate” fans
the fl ames of divisiveness in
our country. However, we
should not be surprised as
16 COURIER LIFE, OCT. 2-8, 2020
THE RIGHT
VIEW
Bob Capano
many Democrats still call
Trump an illegitimate President.
Ironically, it is these
same Democrats that continuously
accuse our president
of divisive rhetoric.
I have instructed college
political science classes for
over 15 years, and in my readings
of the Constitution have
yet to see anything that says
the provisions relating to fi lling
a Supreme Court vacancy
are suspended in an election
year.
Indeed, Article 2, Section
2, Clause 2 of the United States
Constitution states that the
President “shall nominate,
and by and with the Advice
and Consent of the Senate,
shall appoint…Judges of the
Supreme Court.” There are
no conditions, such as how
close to an election a nomination
is made, for senators to
apply in considering confi rmation.
Democrats are making
comparisons to President Barack
Obama’s nomination of
Merrick Garland to the Supreme
Court in 2016, also a
presidential election year,
after the death of Justice
Antonin Scalia. The GOPcontrolled
Senate refused to
move forward with their advice
and nomination, citing
the election season, and leaving
the court to convene that
October with only eight justices.
Republicans today contend
that, unlike in 2016,
they control both the White
House and Senate; therefore,
it is the will of the voters that
they move forward with their
agenda, especially when it
comes to judicial appointments.
One can disagree with
this argument, but to call
the president’s nomination of
Barrett and the Senate’s upcoming
consideration of her
to fi ll the current vacancy on
the Supreme Court “illegitimate”
has no constitutional
or legal basis. It just needlessly
further infl ames the
division in our country.
In addition, does anyone
really doubt that if the roles
were reversed and Democrats
controlled both the Senate
and the presidency that they
would not be doing the same
exact thing today? As Louisiana
Senator John Kennedy,
a Republican member of the
Judiciary Committee said on
Fox News Sunday last week,
“If you don’t believe that,
you probably peaked in high
school.”
It is understandable for
Gillibrand to vote against
the confi rmation of Barrett,
but to call it an “illegitimate”
process and a “degradation of
our democracy and our judiciary”
is just another example
of how the radical left has
taken over the Democratic
party.
Bob Capano has worked
for Brooklyn Republican and
Democrat elected officials,
and has been an adjunct political
science professor for
over 15 years. Follow him on
twitter @bobcapano.
OPINION
Agree or disagree with it, Trump’s
Supreme Court nom is legit
A tale of two billionaires
Two billionaires have recently
involved themselves
in the two most important
political campaigns
this year in southern Brooklyn.
Let’s track who they are
and what political outcomes
the ultra-rich are trying to
foist on the rest of us.
One of these billionaires is
Ronald Lauder. Among other
pursuits, Lauder is the largest
benefactor of the Upper East
Side’s Neue Galerie, an exquisite
museum dedicated to German
and Austrian art of a century
ago. You’ve likely heard
of his mother — her name was
Estée Lauder.
The other billionaire is
Jimmy Dolan. Dolan is perhaps
the most unpopular billionaire
in New York, as he
owns the Knicks, the Rangers,
Madison Square Garden,
the MSG and AMC cable networks,
and he used to own the
cable company Cablevision
which is now called Altice or
Optimum.
Dolan has had a strikingly
bad relationship with New
York’s press corps for at least a
decade. There are also a lot of
customer service complaints
related to his brands! Ask any
Knicks fan how they feel about
team ownership.
Dolan is supporting Republican
congressional candidate
Nicole Malliotakis over Democratic
incumbent Max Rose, because
J.D. — as he is sometimes
knownn — found himself disparaged
by the bald congressman.
Dolan has put at least
$50,000 into a PAC supporting
Malliotakis, and is trying to
raise more.
This is after congressman
Rose, “a Knicks fan to the day
I die,” called on Dolan to sell
the basketball team because
he is “driving the team into the
ground.” I’m not a huge basketball
fan, but the congressman is
right — the results over the last
21 years speak for themselves.
Lauder, meanwhile, has involved
himself in politics this
year to a larger degree than
Dolan. He was the original and
main fi nancier behind New
York City government’s term
limits — a policy I actually support.
Lauder has also backed
Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu
since 2012, and donated over a
million dollars to Trump and
his causes in the last four years,
though he apparently stopped
this year.
Suddenly, Lauder is spending
$1.7 million against eight
Democrats running for state
senate, including Brooklyn’s
own Andrew Gounardes.
Lauder’s PAC says Gounardes
is soft on crime because he
supported cash bail reform as
well as the right of defendants
to confront witnesses against
them, a right implied by our
constitution.
Let me state that the candidates
these billionaires are
supporting are unimpressive:
Malliotakis has accomplished
little and claimed a
lot, while Andrew’s Republican
opponent Vito Bruno has
allegedly committed a few
crimes of his own.
These two billionaires, one
highbrow and one low, are
able to drop so much money
on their personal vendettas
and potentially alter our politics
only because one’s mother
built a fragrance empire and
the other’s father founded
HBO but traded it for the Long
Island cable monopoly. Do we
want Ron and Jimmy’s children
broadcasting their own
foolishness to us 40 years from
now?
Nick Rizzo is a former Democratic
District Leader and a
political consultant who lives
in Greenpoint. Follow him on
Twitter @NickRizzo.
WORDS OF
RIZZDOM
Nick Rizzo