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More Barrett efforts to cover up her past revealed, questions about the health of Republicans swirl
Judge Amy Coney Barrett, United States President Donald J. Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court and Vice President Mike Pence walk up the steps of the Capitol to meet with Senators in Washington, DC on September 29, 2020. Credit: Erin Schaff / Pool via CNPCNP | usage worldwide Photo by: Erin Schaff - Pool via CNP/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images How many Republican senators were infected in this superspreader event? How many vice presidents? RSS There are two related themes emerging from the Amy Coney Barrett nomination and confirmation process: Barrett has been covering up potentially damaging information about her record, and Republicans will go to any lengths to ram her onto the court. Both are severe threats to the health of this democracy. NBC News is reporting that Barrett did not disclose a notable case in which she was one of two lead attorneys defending a Pittsburgh steel magnate accused of helping drive a major Pennsylvania hospital system into bankruptcy on her Judiciary Committee disclosure forms. The questionnaire she, like all court nominees, completed required her to list the '10 most significant litigated matters which you personally handled, whether or not you were the attorney of record' and to 'describe in detail the nature of your participation.' She listed only three cases, the same three she listed in her 2017 questionnaire for an appeals court seat, leaving this one out. Barrett practiced just for two years beginning in 2000, when she notably was part of the team that helped the George W. Bush legal team, getting him selected president by the Supreme Court. Mitch McConnell's Senate is an immediate danger to the American people. Donate now to help end Republican rule. She worked on this case for at least six months beginning in June of 2000 according to court documents. This case 'involves one of the largest nonprofit bankruptcies in U.S. history, at $1.5 billion, which prompted numerous investigations including a criminal probe.' It's not unreasonable to think she only worked on a short list of cases, Prof. Stephen Gillers of New York University, an expert in ethical rules and judges, told NBC. But this one sticks out because she worked on it for a big chunk of the time in which she was practicing, and that raises a red flag. 'The fact that a client is for some reason disreputable would not impede her confirmation. Prominent firms represent disreputable people,' said Gillers. Is it sloppiness on her part? Did she leave it off because it was health care-related and she was on the 'wrong' side of the destruction of a hospital system? Republicans are trying to get her onto the court before arguments in the Affordable Care Act case are heard, certain that she will be a vote to overturn it, making her participation in the Pittsburgh case potentially relevant. This comes after Barrett has already been under fire for not disclosing important, relevant information. Like signing on to a two-page ad published in the South Bend Tribune of Indiana, which called for Roe v. Wade to be overturned to end its 'barbaric legacy,' calling for an end to 'abortion on demand,' and defending 'the right to life from fertilization to the end of natural life.' Additionally, Barrett has not disclosed that she served as a 'handmaid' in People of Praise, a far-right fundamentalist religious community based in charismatic Catholicism. People of Praise has scrubbed its whole website of any mention of Barrett. What else is Barrett covering up in her record, and who is helping her do it? There is a clear pattern with Barrett of hiding relevant information. If this was happening with a Democratic president's nominee, Republicans would be going ballistic. Instead, they're moving as fast as they can. From all the evidence we've seen thus far, they could be the ones advising Barrett to cover up so much of her past. Because these are people who will do anything to get their way, to preserve a minority rule government and extend it to the Supreme Court. Like potentially covering up the coronavirus infection of the Judiciary Committee chairman, Lindsey Graham, who is absolutely refusing to be tested ahead of a Saturday debate with Democrat Jaime Harrison. There's no good reason for Graham not to be tested, unless he has good reason to think that test will be positive. There are already four Republican committee members who've tested positive or are quarantining because of their exposure to the virus—Mike Lee from Utah and Thom Tillis from North Carolina both tested positive. Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Ted Cruz of Texas say they've tested negative but have been advised to quarantine. After those revelations last week, Republicans absolutely shut down and shut up about further tests in their ranks, increasing fears about yet another cover-up on their part. It didn't help when members started talking about showing up sick wearing 'moon suits' or 'being wheeled in to cast' their vote. One of those possibly sick Republicans made waves—and revealed exactly what is happening here with the Barrett confirmation process—after Wednesday's vice presidential debate, when he tweeted this: He's trying to pretend like there's some great philosophical rational for maintaining minoritarian rule. They've got the the electoral college, a Senate majority that has received a minority of votes, extreme partisan gerrymandering, and rampant voter suppression, but they could still lose the White House. So to stop that, Lee is saying right there, they’ll rely on a 6-3 Supreme Court to block an elected Democratic agenda.
Joan McCarter ... Daily Kos Staff
| Friday October 09, 2020 · 10:31 AM EDT The text being discussed is available at | https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/10/9/1983723/-A-pattern-of-coverups-is-emerging-in-Barrett-nomination-by-the-nominee-and-by-Republican-senators and |