Matt Drudge's Cries of Anti-Trump Despair Over Ginsburg's Death: Three Revealing Headlines
Matt Drudge has become obsessed by his hatred of Trump. This is reflected in his headlines.
He has lost almost 40% of his readership. He turned on Trump, and millions of his former readers have turned on him. Turnabout is fair play.
HEADLINES
I have been writing headlines for ads since 1974. That's the number-one skill of the direct-response copywriter. If he can't write reader-attracting headlines, he is not going to be successful in the trade. So, I have great respect for Drudge's ability to write headlines. He is the master headline writer of this era. His headlines are pure click bait.
Matt Drudge has nothing to say . . . except in his headlines. He is mute . . . except in his headlines. This is why I pay attention to his headlines.
In the evening of September 18, Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. This was the lead story in all of the news services. It was the lead story on Drudge's site.
What caught my eye were the five mini-headlines of the upper left-hand corner of his site.
The first two headlines are conventional. I don't see how anybody can argue with them. She was a liberal powerhouse who did leave a legacy on the court. She was also a champion of women's rights, meaning a champion of the feminist movement's agenda.
What grabbed my attention as an experienced headline writer were the next three headlines.
To quote the mellifluous orator of the U.S. Senate, Everett Dirksen: "Ha, ha, ha; and, I might add, ho, ho, ho."
The delicious irony of what is about to happen is this. Dirksen gave that response in 1964 to a reporter who asked him about a proposed change in the Senate's rules governing filibustering. It took a two-thirds vote of Senators present to stop a minority filibuster. As the Senate Minority Leader, Dirksen thought this change was so unlikely that he gave his famous answer. Yet this is exactly what has happened. It is called the nuclear option. The AP explains.
This procedural maneuver has recent precedent. In 2017, Republicans used the “nuclear option” to force through the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Supreme Court nominees had been exempted under new rules the Democrats set for judicial appointments in 2013.At that time, Democrats were in the majority under the leadership of Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada and upset about the blockage of President Barack Obama’s nominees to a powerful appellate court.
At the time, now-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned Democrats the strategy would backfire: “I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, you will regret this, and you may regret it a lot sooner than you think.”
Ha, ha, ha; and, I might add, ho, ho, ho.
Ginsburg had a chance to resign at age 81 in 2014. Liberal Democrats tried to persuade her to do it. Obama was President, and the Democrats controlled the Senate. She refused.
Her plea about not replacing her until after January 20 has become a politely silent prayer of thanksgiving in Republican ranks. As a stage III cancer victim, I have a tender spot in my heart for somebody who is dying of the disease. But it is our responsibility to deal with the actuarial tables, especially if we are pre-boomers. She had an opportunity to have her replacement appointed by Obama. Her replacement would have been young. But she tried to beat the actuarial odds, and she lost.
So did the Democrats.
So did Drudge.
You wish!
There is not going to be a titanic replacement battle. The deal is done right now. Mitch McConnell has been a true master in guiding Trump's restructuring of the federal appellate court system over the last 3 1/2 years. The Democrats know it. They hate him for it. Now he has his greatest opportunity of all: replacing the most liberal member of the court with somebody around 50 years old, who will almost certainly be a member of the Federalist Society. This is going to be the most timely of all Supreme Court appointments in my lifetime.
The Democrats will wail in outrage. They will try every trick in the book to stop the confirmation. Nothing they do is going to work.
McConnell will probably delay the vote beyond November 3. He will go through the motions of giving the nominee a judicious hearing. What he will really be doing is kicking the political can beyond election day. Until November 4, he will not stir up trouble for Republicans running for the Senate, especially incumbent Republican senators in states that might go either way. He will ramrod this through the Senate after November 3.
The battle will not be titanic. It will be the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Hawthorne Country Day School. There will be a lot of tearful sniffling. "It's just not fair. It's not sportsmanlike."
What wrath? Maybe on November 3, but not so far.
Trump is in charge. McConnell is in charge. The Democrats can't block this. They changed the rules when Obama was President and Harry Reid was Senate Majority Leader.
The headline links to a conventional obituary on CBS news. The word "wrath" does not occur in the article. That was Drudge's description, not the obituary's. It included this:
Despite their very different ideological views, Ginsburg became close friends with the fiery conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016. They loved attending the opera together and even took to the stage as extras.
Maybe it's the wrath of Drudge.
CONCLUSION
If Trump loses in November, this will be his most remembered legacy. This is the kind of event sequence that historians pay attention to. Departure is all about timing. Ginsburg departed before Trump did. To the Democrats, I say: "Close, but no cigar."
If Trump wins in the voting booths, but just barely loses because of mail-in ballots, this will go into the courts. Because of Ginsburg's death, the Senate Republicans will have an opportunity after November 3 to make sure that the court is not going to be divided 4 to 4. It's likely to be 5 to 4, and Trump will be reelected.
In a deadlock, Nancy Pelosi could wind up as the first female President in the interim that begins January 20 at noon, but the vote is likely to be 5 to 4 for Trump after it reaches the Court.
If Biden wins in the voting booths and mail-in ballots, it's going to take time before he has an opportunity to appoint somebody to the Court, actuarially speaking. His main opportunity would be if Justice Thomas dies while either he or Harris is President. Thomas could eliminate this opportunity by resigning in November, leaving time for confirmation of a replacement before the end of the 114th Congress on January 3.
He could also eliminate it by beating Moses' limit.
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away (Psalm 90:10).
Justice Thomas is 72.
I don't think he will resign. So, may he live long and prosper.