Ky. Dems can thank Rand Paul for saving them from bad Biden deal on federal judgeship

It should surprise exactly no one that the recent furor over a federal judgeship in the Eastern District of Kentucky came down to petty brinksmanship and ego.

On Monday, Sen. Rand Paul revealed that he had put a stop to the appointment of conservative attorney Chad Meredith after the White House and Kentucky’s senior Sen. Mitch McConnell had come to some kind of deal to put him in a soon to be vacated spot. The deal, first revealed by the Courier Journal the week after Roe v. Wade was overturned, stunned and infuriated Kentucky Democrats, who had the forlorn hope that a Democratic President wouldn’t want to install an anti-choice Federalist Society judge in an open seat the White House actually controls.

It turns out Paul nixed the deal not because it looked dirty. Not because Meredith, a staunch conservative, worked for former Gov. Matt Bevin and was possibly also involved with Bevin’s colossally controversial pardon deals. No, Paul likes Meredith, it turns out. He stopped the deal because he was mad that McConnell had failed to consult him on the matter.

“I support Chad Meredith and supported him when he was considered for a different position. I think he would make a good judge. 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 said in a statement to McClatchyDC Monday evening.

McConnell has denied there was any kind of deal. He called it a “personal favor” from his old Senate partner, the hapless President Joe Biden, who was apparently just going to give up a federal judgeship because 50 years ago, the Senate was collegial or something. “The net result of this is it has prevented me from getting my kind of judge out of a liberal Democratic president,” McConnell told the New York Times. As I said before, if Biden believed McConnell would actually return the favor, then we have even bigger problems than we thought.

McConnell and Paul have been frequently uneasy political bedfellows. Paul, the contrarian libertarian, loves to grandstand, hold up votes and generally be a constant thorn to the subtle backroom dealings so perfected by McConnell. Paul is a living reminder of one of McConnell’s greatest political defeats in 2010, when Paul defeated establishment darling and McConnell’s handpicked candidate Trey Grayson in the GOP Senate primary in a national Tea Party victory.

This judgeship imbroglio is a perfect example: Biden gets suckered by McConnell, whose perfect deal is then overturned by a guy with a bruised ego. Remember that Rand Paul really knows how to work people into violent rages.

The only winners? Kentucky Democrats, who can thank Rand Paul for saving them from a Democratic White House that was supposed to protect them from deals like this. On the other hand, Kentucky Democrats are also the biggest losers, abandoned by their President, who clearly thinks that Kentucky matters so little he should accommodate a former Senate colleague rather than appoint a judge who believes in civil rights for all Americans.