Sad Red State Dude: Confirm Merrick Garland Before Hillary Nominates Ghost Che Guevara

Help us, centrist liberal! You're our only hope!

 Rightwing panic over Ted Cruz's withdrawal from the campaign is manifesting itself in some pretty weird ways. Consider, for instance, this RedState post calling for Senate Republicans to drop their "let the people have a voice" rhetoric and just confirm Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court already. Obviously, since all hope is lost and Hillary Clinton will be president, says RedStater Leon Wolf, it's better for conservatives to choke back their tears and confirm Garland rather than risk whatever horrifying Red Hillary will nominate:

There is absolutely no reason to drag this out any longer. Garland is not a great choice, but he is not a terrible one, either. And more than anything, he is old (for a modern Supreme Court appointment) and will be up for replacement in probably 10 years instead of 20 or 30.

So the best conservative argument for confirming Garland is that he'll die sooner than whatever young radical Hillary Clinton would appoint. That there is some serious realpolitik. It's the only responsible thing to do, says Wolf:

Republicans must know that there is absolutely no chance that we will win the White House in 2016 now. They must also know that we are likely to lose the Senate as well. So the choices, essentially, are to confirm Garland and have another bite at the apple in a decade, or watch as President Clinton nominates someone who is radically more leftist and 10-15 years younger, and we are in no position to stop it.

Yeah, that's a real shame, now isn't it? We're all broke up over it. It's also worth noting that if Clinton is elected, she'll likely have the chance to nominate more than one new justice. While Clinton has chided the Senate for not holding hearings on Garland, she very carefully hasn't said whether she'd nominate Garland if the Senate takes no action, either.

You can see the beads of sweat on Wolf's forehead here:

In fact, if I were the Republicans, my main concern right now would be that Barack Obama would withdraw Garland’s nomination today. The fact that Merrick Garland still exists as an option right now is a gift that should not be squandered.

The poor guy is dancing around like he's about to wet himself. It's a pathetic and beautiful thing to watch.

[ RedState / ThinkProgress ]