OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
There’s a fight brewing between the top two Republicans from the state of Kentucky.
GOP Sen. Rand Paul killed the nomination of a pro-life conservative federal judge because Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell did not consult with him about it — even though both Republicans supported the judge.
Paul released a statement saying he “supported” Chad Meredith’s nomination to the U.S. District Court vacancy in Kentucky’s Eastern District.
Meredith is a pro-life judge and a member of the Federalist Society, a group that advocates for an originalist interpretation of the Constitution.
“I think he would make a good judge,” Paul said. “Unfortunately, instead of communicating and lining up support for him, Senator McConnell chose to cut a secret deal with the White House that fell apart.”
Paul argued that McConnell was “to blame for tanking this because he tried to do [it] secretly.”
“We have no reason to be opposed to Chad Meredith, other than we want at least the courtesy of the … minority leader, thinking that he’s not so important that he doesn’t have to talk to his fellow state senator, that’s all we wanted,” Paul continued. “This was a secret deal by McConnell.”
"We have no reason to be opposed to Chad Meredith, other than we want at least the courtesy of the … minority leader, thinking that he's not so important that he doesn't have to talk to his fellow state senator, that's all we wanted."
"This was a secret deal by McConnell"
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) July 18, 2022
Last week, McConnell whined to the media that Paul’s opposition to the nomination was “utterly pointless.”
“The net result of this is it has prevented me from getting my kind of judge out of a liberal Democratic president,” McConnell said.
McConnell’s been getting in spats with other top Republicans, including former President Donald Trump.
McConnell recently gave money to help re-elect Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, who is currently underwater against Trump-backed GOP primary challenger and attorney Harriet Hageman.
Cheney, who is no longer recognized as a member of the party by the Wyoming GOP, is badly trailing Hageman in polling.
The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney has been a thorn in Trump’s side for more than a year, having criticized him while in office and then blaming him for inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol Building. She further inflamed tensions with Trump when she voted with 10 other House Republicans to impeach him and then agree to co-chair the committee assembled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to investigate the origins of the riot.
She joined the panel along with Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois who won office as a Tea Party-backed candidate but who also criticized Trump and voted to impeach after the riot. His district has been realigned and rather than face a tough reelection campaign, Kinzinger has decided to call it quits this year.
But the Cheney-Hageman battle, more broadly, appears to be shaping up to be a major political proxy war, with so-called ‘establishment’ Republicans lining up behind Cheney and ‘America-First’ conservatives siding with Trump and Hageman.
New York GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik, who was elected to replace Cheney as head of the House Republican Conference, the No. 3 party position in the chamber, declared that it was time for the Wyoming lawmaker to be sent packing.
Stefanik said she has endorsed Cheney’s primary opponent Hageman as well.
“It was very clear that Liz Cheney lost the support of her colleagues in Congress by epic proportions just like she’s going to lose the support of her constituents in Wyoming,” Stefanik said.
“You’re not entitled to these positions in elected office,” Stefanik added. “You are elected by your constituents and in the case of leadership, you’re elected by your colleagues.”
“The American people are far more important than Liz Cheney and as an elected official, you should never forget that – that the American people are the most important voices in our constitutional republic,” Stefanik said. “When you forget that, it’s time you’re out of elected office.”
