Consider, if you will, Merrick Garland ― a one-time distinguished Supreme Court nominee now fated to endlessly be the set-up in a joke whose punchline never arrives.
Garland, of course, is best known for being the central figure in one of the Republican-controlled Senate’s grandest indignities, the history of which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been desperate to revise.
But now, he’s apparently the unexpected apple of another senator’s eye.
As you might imagine, this tweet from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) had to be chased by another statement indicating that this was a real thing he pitched to Trump, and that Lee wasn’t just trying to be funny on Twitter.
Well, if you say so, Mike Lee spokesperson!
Right now, the lists of prospective replacements for James Comey are starting to be built for easy content consumption. Politico’s Josh Gerstein assembled a credible one yesterday, which included figures who are known to be on a Trump administration shortlist, such as former Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers and former NYPD Chief Ray Kelly. He sets these prospective candidates alongside names of people the Twitter wags have quipped about. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani makes the cut, along with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has basically been desperate to do anything short of bearing Donald Trump a child to resuscitate some semblance of a political career.
Garland isn’t mentioned, because that would be nigh upon loopy for someone like Gerstein to consider.
But it turns out Lee’s notion did not come right out of the blue: The Daily Caller’s Kevin Daley floated the idea in a piece titled “The Case For Merrick Garland As FBI Director.” For the most part, it inadvertently makes the case that Garland would have been an excellent Supreme Court justice.
It’s also a little too clever by half. Daley notes that Senate Democrats, having offered “uniformly glowing assessments of Garland’s quality and experience” could not “now plausibly marshall [sic] a convincing case against him.”
But sure they could, if they wanted to, for the very reason Daley points to in his next paragraph: “His appointment would also open a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.” At the moment, Democratic appointees outnumber their Republican colleagues by a 7-4 margin. That’s what provides the case against a Garland-to-the-FBI maneuver, if Democrats were so inclined to make it.
But you should never underestimate the Democrats’ capacity to deliver the self-owns:
Of course, it would ultimately require Trump to put Garland’s name up for the job. As Daley writes:
An investigation under his supervision into collaboration between Trump aides and Russian operatives would be immune from questions of rectitude. If Trump is committed to a thorough investigation that will mollify his critics, there’s no better choice than Judge Garland.
If that’s true, then no one needs to worry about Garland being appointed to run the FBI.
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Jason Linkins edits “Eat The Press” for HuffPost and co-hosts the HuffPost Politics podcast “So, That Happened.” Subscribe here, and listen to the latest episode below.