Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Shortly after news of Justice Stephen Breyer\u2019s retirement, William Owen, a Democratic National Committee member from Tennessee, texted the party chair, Jaime Harrison, with an idea that by then was already all over Twitter: Kamala Harris for the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
There was virtually no chance of it ever happening. Harrison responded that the vice president wasn\u2019t interested. And the White House \u2014 facing media questions about the possibility last week \u2014 reiterated President Joe Biden\u2019s plan to keep her as his running mate in 2024.<\/p>\n
Yet if the Harris-to-Supreme Court chatter was a fantasy, what was revealing was that such an extreme scenario was running through Democratic Party circles at all, and has continued in the days since \u2014 not just on social media, but among the party\u2019s professional and political ranks. In interviews with two dozen strategists and party officials for this story, fully half of them either volunteered or said they\u2019d entertained the idea, including both moderates and progressives. Among those who did not, several women and people of color were repulsed that Democrats were even talking about it, viewing it as an affront to Harris.<\/p>\n
Some of the Democrats who raised the possibility, including Owen, said they did so in admiration for Harris\u2019 background as a prosecutor and a senator \u2014 particularly her sharp questioning of Brett Kavanaugh before his confirmation to the Supreme Court. But most of them expressed a different consideration, reflecting the intense skepticism within some parts of the party about Harris\u2019 ability to win a presidential race if Biden does not run for reelection \u2014 and a desire to open the field to other possible successors to a 79-year-old president.<\/p>\n
More broadly, however implausible, the Harris-for-Supreme Court discussion laid bare how desperate Democrats have become for anything to reset their dismal midterm election outlook.<\/p>\n
For some activists, said Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, \u201cIt\u2019s like doomsday every day\u2026 Everything is bad \u2014 let\u2019s throw everything at the wall to maybe get the base excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of those activists\u2019 sentiment, she said, \u201cI think it could potentially manifest itself in Kamala, because that\u2019s an easy out for people. But that\u2019s not at the root of it. At the root of it is we\u2019re doing all these good things as Democrats, and yet the voters don\u2019t seem to be on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris is roughly as popular inside the Democratic Party as Biden, with a job approval rating among Democrats exceeding 80 percent, according to arecent CBS News poll<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yet for all of her appeal, there is an undercurrent of discussion within the party that she is a political liability \u2014 an opinion founded in herlow approval ratings nationally<\/a>, questions about her performance as vice president and, most significantly, the implosion of her 2020 presidential campaign \u2014 a campaign that unraveled so abruptly and precipitously that it tarnished her reputation as one of the party\u2019s brightest stars.<\/p>\n Since becoming vice president, she has beenbeset by office turmoil<\/a> and a portfolio of politically intransigent issues, including voting rights and immigration.<\/p>\n Putting Harris on the Supreme Court would avoid the question of 2024 or 2028 entirely.<\/p>\n \u201cWin-win,\u201d said Steve Maviglio, a former New Hampshire state lawmaker and Democratic strategist from California, Harris\u2019 home state.<\/p>\n \u201cShe checks a lot of the boxes: A woman of color, a liberal, being smart on a lot of issues, having experience,\u201d he said. \u201cThe other part is that she\u2019s not horribly popular as vice president, like it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n Few critics of Harris\u2019 political prospects would speak publicly due to the ferocity of her support in some corners of the party and, in some cases, their own respect for her. But a Harris appointment to the high court, one adviser to major Democratic donors said, would \u201csolve a lot of problems.\u201d One Democratic strategist in the Midwest joked that she could support a Harris court appointment \u201cif it guarantees she never runs for [president] again.\u201d Another party consultant volunteered a Harris appointment, though implausible, would deliver a \u201ctwo-fer jolt \u2014 Kamala as Supreme Court justice and a new VP to bring in some excitement and change the narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n To the vice president\u2019s allies and former aides, the Harris-to-SCOTUS wish-casting was a trope engineered by her Republican opponents. Symone Sanders, Harris\u2019 former senior adviser and chief spokesperson,said on Twitter<\/a> that \u201cthe \u2018VP Harris could be nominated to the Supreme Court\u2019 chatter originated in right wing circles as a part of the narrative that the President wants to remove her from the ticket. So, we probably shouldn\u2019t elevate the idea b\/c it is right wing gossip with no basis in facts.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s true that the chatter did find oxygen on the right, fanned everywhere fromBill Kristol<\/a> toFox News<\/a> to theconspiratorial rantings<\/a> of the Newsmax set.<\/p>\n But it was also percolating privately on the left, despite hesitation among Democrats to say anything publicly disparaging to the vice president. One Democratic strategist in Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state, said he was \u201c1,000,000 percent\u201d hopeful that Biden would appoint Harris. Another strategist said a Harris appointment \u2014 and the subsequent search for a new vice president \u2014 would be valuable to \u201cdistract the nation from the other s—,\u201d as Democrats amid an ongoing pandemic and legislative stall-outs in Washington confront likely losses in the midterm elections.<\/p>\n Owen said he only considered a Harris appointment because she is highly qualified and would be a talented justice [He came to believe it was a bad idea when he realized the White House would lose a tie-breaking vote in the Senate to confirm a new vice president].<\/p>\n \u201cYou could look at this in the negative as people looking to get Kamala out,\u201d said Amanda Renteria, who was national political director of Hillary Clinton\u2019s 2016 campaign. \u201cOr you could look at it as\u2026 where she came onto the scene and where people saw her at her best was in that prosecutorial role in the Senate, and that\u2019s where people got to know her. So, you can\u2019t help but think of her name as you\u2019d think of for the Supreme Court.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Renteria said, \u201cThis is just noise. Folks know that this is silly.\u201d<\/p>\n Biden\u2019s nomination of a Black woman to the Supreme Court will fulfill a campaign promise, pleasing base Democratic voters and likely winning Senate confirmation.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is squarely a moment where Biden was running, he said he was going to do this, and he\u2019s now going to deliver on this,\u201d Renteria said. \u201cSo, getting back to that is really important, as opposed to a conversation of tearing down the vice president who is a Black woman. That to me is a sad statement about the conversation that is happening right now.\u201d \u201cI just think she\u2019s getting a raw deal,\u201d West said. \u201cI just love her, and I love who she is and how she thinks.\u201d<\/p>\n The Harris discussion, however preposterous, was not without consequence. It served as a distraction during a week in which Democrats were celebrating a rare opportunity for Biden to nominate a liberal justice \u2014 and deliver a victory to the Democratic base. That\u2019s significant for a party laboring to energize voters in a difficult midterm election year.<\/p>\n The Supreme Court pick Biden will make will be a \u201cpositive without question, and it\u2019s something that\u2019s long overdue,\u201d said Gilda Cobb-Hunter, an influential South Carolina state lawmaker.<\/p>\n As for recasting the 2024 ticket, she said, \u201cDemocrats ought to stop entertaining those kind of thoughts,\u201d \u201cget a backbone\u201d and \u201cstop whining.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cStop focusing on 2024 and look at fricking 2022,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For Harris\u2019 part, the real-world confirmation of a justice may be politically beneficial to her too. <\/p>\n Harris\u2019 office, when contacted for this story, directed POLITICO to public comments Biden made last week when the president said he plans to consult with Harris as he considers a nominee. In advising Biden, Harris, the first woman and first Black vice president, will play a role in what Biden has pledged will be a historic appointment of the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the Texas Democratic Party, said that Harris\u2019 critics are \u201ctoo quick to judge.\u201d She is only a year into her vice presidency, and Hinojosa said he\u2019s confident she will \u201crise to the occasion\u201d in her current role.<\/p>\n \u201cIf she does become the nominee\u201d in some future year, he said, \u201cI think she\u2019ll be a great nominee for the party.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donna West, the former chair of the Democratic Party in Clark County, Nevada, said it\u2019s \u201cextremely mean that people think we\u2019ve got to move her out of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n