Mitch McConnell Sure Knew How To Play Hardball With The Federal Judiciary

[Mitch] McConnell was very good at building a federal judiciary by and for conservative white men. His twin priorities were confirming as many Republican judges as possible, and blocking as many Democratic appointees as possible.

— Madiba Dennie, writing at Balls and Strikes, about the legacy of Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the chamber for a record 18 years. In a recent interview McConnell, who famously kept the late Antonin Scalia’s Supreme Court seat open for over a year to prevent Barack Obama from appointing his replacement, defended his brazen tactics, saying he didn’t “break any rules,” and there was “nothing unconstitutional about it.”