GEN "MAD DOG" MATTIS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTS SEC OF DEFENSE ROLE

GEN JOE "MAD DOG" MATTIS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTS SEC OF DEFENSE ROLE:

TRUMP GUARANTEES WAIVER APPROVAL.

US MILITARY NEEDS STRONG, COMPETENT LEADERSHIP.


Sources: AP, Fox News, YouTube


****** Mattis says he's 'grateful' to be nominated as defense secretary; House GOP introduces waiver language


President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Department of Defense said Tuesday that he was "grateful" to be nominated as House Republicans introduced a must-pass spending bill that included language designed to speed up his confirmation.
Retired Marine Gen. James "Mad Dog" Mattis briefly joined Trump on stage at the president-elect's "Thank You" rally in Fayetteville, N.C.

"I’m grateful for the opportunity to return to our troops, their families, the civilians at the Department of Defense," Mattis said in brief remarks. "I know how committed they are and devoted they are to the defense of our country [and] the defense of our Constitution. And with our allies strengthened and with our country strengthened, I look forward to being the civilian leader, so long as Congress gives me the waiver and the Senate votes to consent."

"You're going to get that waiver," Trump said as Mattis left the microphone. "If you don’t get that waiver, there are going to be a lot of angry people."

Mattis retired from the military in 2013. However, since federal law requires the secretary of defense to be off active duty for at least seven years, Congress would have to approve a waiver allowing Mattis to lead the Pentagon.

Shortly before Trump took the stage, House Republicans included a proposal to expedite the waiver in legislation to keep the government funded into next spring.

The bill would prevent the government from shutting down this weekend and buy several months for the new Congress and incoming Trump administration to wrap up more than $1 trillion worth of unfinished agency budget bills.

However, it also includes language meant to force Senate Democrats to consider whether to oppose the entire spending bill over Mattis' confirmation, risking a government shutdown over the matter.

The legislation requires Mattis to receive 60 Senate votes to receive the waiver. However, the legislation would limit debate on the measure to 10 hours.

For Mattis to receive the waiver, at least eight Senate Democrats would have to join 52 Senate Republican to approve it.

Trump himself was less bombastic Tuesday evening than at a similar rally last week in Cincinnati. The president-elect attempted to strike more of the healing notes traditionally delivered in the weeks after a bruising campaign. He even stopped the crowd when it started to boo the media.

"We will defend American jobs. We have to look at it almost like a war," Trump thundered. "We want the next generation of innovation and production to happen right here in America.

"We will heal our divisions and unify our country. When Americans are unified there is nothing we cannot do -- nothing!" he added. "I'm asking you to dream big again as Americans. I'm asking you to believe in yourselves."

MERRICK GARLAND: HE'S NO JUSTICE SCALIA, OBAMA'S 3RD TERM

MERRICK GARLAND: HE'S NO JUSTICE SCALIA, OBAMA'S 3RD TERM

GARLAND WAS APPOINTED AS AN APPELLATE JUDGE IN 1997 BY BILL CLINTON.

Sources: CNN, Washington Times, Youtube

February 12, 2016 Conservative SCOTUS Justice Antonin Scalia was Murdered.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016 Pres Obama nominated  Scalia's replacement, Appellate Court Judge Merrick Brian Garland, a LIBERAL appointed by former president BILL CLINTON in 1997.

Due to this being a presidential election year, the GOP-controlled Senate has already refused to confirm Garland.

Scalia's open seat places the 2016 presidential election in a dangerous predicament.

If Garland is not confirmed, in the event of a Bush v Gore-style election battle the SCOTUS will remain deadlocked.

A deadlocked SCOTUS court in an election results battle presents two possible scenarios:

1).  A long drawn out, expensive litigation until a decision is made.

2) Obama is legally allowed to remain President until a decision is made.

Thus Obama may get the 3rd term he has been hoping for.

***** Jeffrey Toobin: Sure, Merrick Garland is qualified, but this is politics

Story highlights

• Jeffrey Toobin: Supreme Court nominee is unlikely to survive political maelstrom 
• Toobin says Republicans will likely not bend and allow hearing or vote on Merrick Garland 
• Cost of allowing Obama pick who could tip court is too great for GOP, he says.
• Should Merrick Garland's friends be offering him congratulations -- or condolences? After a distinguished career in public service, Garland has been tapped for the legal profession's highest honor -- to be a Supreme Court justice. But President Barack Obama's nomination thrusts Garland into a political maelstrom he is unlikely to survive -- at least as a judge on the nation's highest court.

Garland, who is 63, has had a storybook career. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School (like the justice he would be replacing, Antonin Scalia), was clerk for a pair of legendary judges (Henry Friendly and William Brennan), and a partner at a prominent law firm -- which he gave up to work as a line prosecutor in the District of Columbia.

He was a Justice Department official and then judge for the last 18 years on the second most important court in the nation. 

The issue of Garland's qualifications to be on the Supreme Court is beyond question.

But Republicans have said that because Obama is in the last year of his term, the seat on the court should be determined by the voters -- who will be choosing the next president. They have vowed, in very explicit terms, to refuse to give Garland a hearing or a vote. 

Most Republican senators will refuse even to meet with him. And while Republican senators have so far avoided attacking Garland's qualifications, conservative interest groups are already pledging to run television advertisements portraying the judge as a mindless liberal and Obama stooge.

It's all very ... political. But the Supreme Court has always been as much a political body as a legal one. Supporters of the President, and of Garland, are seeking to impose the maximum amount of political pain on their opponents in the Senate.

Democrats have already started calling out their Republican counterparts as do-nothing obstructionists. This is how the process will play out, and the outcome will depend on the politics. Do Republicans stick with their base and refuse a vote? Or do they cave under criticism and allow Garland to proceed through the process?

The odds strongly favor continuing Republican solidarity. The seat is the tipping point to a Democratic majority on the court, and the GOP will put up with a lot of heat to prevent the loss of the court for a generation. 

True, a President Hillary Clinton might pick someone even more liberal, but better to risk a fight later than lose one now. When it comes to the Supreme Court, political calculation is nothing new. There were no good old days.