Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Clint Brewer to the studio to weigh in on the Senate vote for Amy Coney Barrett Monday night.
Leahy: In studio now by our good friend, all-star panelist, recovering journalist, and public affairs specialist Clint Brewer. Thanks, Clint for being here.
Brewer: Hey, man, good to be here you doing alright?
Leahy: Four words that I’ve always wanted to hear and I will say them right now. Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Brewer: I thought you were going to say it is almost over.
Leahy: (Chuckles) Those would be good ones to say as well. I don’t know when Clint we’ll be able to say it is almost over.
Brewer: I don’t know either. I mean we can get to that later in the show.
Leahy: I’m with you on that. But let’s talk about Amy Coney Barrett. and during the break here you asked me to look up something and I thought was very interesting. So last night the Senate confirmed her to the Supreme Court. And she was sworn in at the White House by Clarence Thomas. I thought that was a great touch.
Brewer: And now she’s got to be sworn in is it today? She has a second swearing-in. A constitutional swearing-in to by the court by Justice Roberts to sit on the court.
Leahy: Yeah, that’ll happen today. Now, what was interesting about this and the question that you asked me is this. to compare the vote for her which 52 to 48 to confirm her. Only one Republican voted against her. Susan Collins.
Brewer: And she had permission to do so as I recall.
Leahy: She totally has permission to do so because and by the way, I have got to tip my hat to Mitch McConnell. That guy, say what you will about him that guy knows how to wield power for conservatives.
Brewer: Mitch McConnell is the apex predator of politics in this country. He is the absolute master of these things. I don’t know that we’ve seen a better one.
Leahy: We have not seen a better Senate majority leader in modern history. He was spectacular at understanding how to pull the levers to make it happen and boy, did he deliver a victory for conservatives.
Brewer: He really did.
Leahy: He’s not exactly a warm and fuzzy charismatic type guy. And in part I think that personality is you may have done, you know, that’s why a lot of tea party people didn’t like them.
Brewer: And he has to fight to hang on to his Senate seat in Kentucky. It’s a very purple state.
Leahy: Yeah Yeah, I think he’s not in danger this time around against Amy McGrath.
Brewer: But has historically he’s he has had to work to keep that seat.
Leahy: But also in the primaries and of course, he hadn’t Knock-down drag-out primary with Matt Bevin in 2014. The Tea Party People, you know had hated him because he was an establishment guy and he was.
Brewer: I think he is.
Leahy: He still is but you know what it takes all sorts of political personalities to save the constitutional republic. I am delighted to have Mitch McConnell as that ally.
Brewer: McConnell is a perfect example. And this could be true for conservatives or progressives or any type of politician. The people who make the fiery speeches and then there are the people who actually get things done. And McConnell knows how to govern. That’s the difference.
Leahy: Boy, does he know how to do it.
Brewer: And he’s really good at it. And you’re never going to hear him get up there and make a stem twister of a speech at a rally. He’s got an X’s and O’s.
Leahy: Right you will he fall asleep listening to his speeches sometimes. But if you want something done, yeah pay attention to every word because he knows what he’s doing.
Brewer: He does.
Leahy: So it’s interesting because Amy Coney Barrett I would say perhaps the best nominee to serve on the Supreme Court in decades.
Brewer: Well, and you know, as every Supreme Court nomination has been for as long as I can remember it’s been politicized. you mentioned Clarence Thomas. That was sort of the first real TV circus of a nomination I guess.
Leahy: Well after Bork. Bork was the worst. It was in the late 80s. It was awful.
Brewer: Barrett’s refusal to violate her judicial can of ethics by speculatively talking about cases that may or may not come before The Supreme Court just to get votes or approval or a sound bite, I thought was just incredibly admirable.
Leahy: And extraordinarily disciplined.
Brewer: Oh, yeah. Very disciplined. But in a way that made you understand why she wouldn’t step into those traps.
Brewer: And it started with a respect for the bench.
Leahy: Exactly.
Brewer: I mean her position was out of a respect for the job
Listen to the full third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Amy Coney Barrett” by The White House.
