It's Only Reckless Partisanship When the Other Guys Do It, Huh? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should just give this speech: We should not confirm any Obama nominee to the Supreme Court except in extraordinary circumstances. They must prove by actions not words that they are in the mainstream rather than we have to prove that they are not . . . This is just a prologue considering the constitutional harm and dramatic departures that are in store if those few are joined by one more ideological ally. We have to, in my judgment, stick by the precepts that I've elaborated. I will do everything in my power to prevent one more ideological ally from joining Sotomayor and Kagan on the court. That, of course, is a speech from Chuck Schumer from June 2007, with "Bush" replaced with "Obama" and "Roberts and Alito" changed to "Sotomayor and Kagan." Watch the video; the audience at the American Constitutional Society gave it roaring applause at the end. No one booed. No one shouted this was an assault on the Constitution and rule of law. No one tore their hair out claiming that this was an obstinate ideological litmus test, and that it represented an assault on an independent judiciary. So we've already established that in the minds of the American legal community, it is perfectly legitimate and fair for an opposition party to refuse to confirm a president's nominees to the Supreme Court unless the nominee meets that opposition party's definition of "mainstream." Goose, meet gander. What's more, Obama is particularly hypocritical here; he's the first president who voted to filibuster one of his predecessor's nominations, Samuel Alito. Obama voted against John Roberts as well -- you know, the chief justice who saved Obamacare twice. Is South Carolina Jeb Bush's Last Stand? Will a Bush family reunion give Jeb a boost in the South Carolina polls? Right now he's at 10 percent in the RealClearPolitics average -- technically a half-percent behind John Kasich, who isn't even seriously contesting the state. Today and tomorrow, Kasich is in Michigan, which doesn't hold its primary until March 8. Former president George W. Bush will make his long-awaited public debut on the campaign trail with his brother, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, on Monday. They'll appear at a rally in North Charleston, S.C., a campaign official confirmed. George W. Bush has long been a well-regarded figure in South Carolina, where he won 53.39% of the vote in the 2000 presidential primary. Jeb Bush has recently embraced his family's presidential lineage, which he initially distanced himself from in his bid for the White House, not even including his last name on his campaign's logo. His mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, campaigned with him in New Hampshire, where he finished fourth in Tuesday's primary. The Bush campaign won't like me writing this, but if the polling order remains the same as it is right now -- Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, Bush -- what's the justification for Bush's sticking around? As of the end of January, Bush's campaign and his super PAC had spent $84 million, and he's finished sixth in Iowa with about 3 percent and fourth in New Hampshire with 11 percent. He has yet to win a county. He's at 4.3 percent nationally. He's in fourth place, behind Trump, Cruz, and Rubio, in his home state of Florida, at 9 percent. Yes, it's early, and Bush is only 13 delegates behind Trump. He's getting better in the debates. But if there's no jump in the polls, what is Jeb Bush's legacy? Let this quote from Stu Stevens put it into perspective: "I think it's insane," said Stuart Stevens, a top strategist on Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. "I think the super PAC has turned into this sort of killing machine that no one controls and it's just out there with $100 million, and the degree to which the Bush people and the Marco people are obsessed with each other is like the Bosnian civil war." 
ABOVE: The Right to Rise PAC staff contemplate their strategy for Bush's rivals. Farewell, Gravity Falls. Parents Everywhere Will Miss You. Tonight is the finale of Disney's Gravity Falls, the most enjoyable animated show to come down the pike in a long time. I've described the show as "Twin Peaks for kids," and it's a perfect concept: A twelve-year-old twin brother and sister are sent to spend the summer working at their great-uncle's tourist-trap souvenir shop in a small town deep in the woods of Oregon -- only to find that the town is home to every conceivable legend: bigfoot, sea monsters, walking, talking garden gnomes, ghosts, mad scientists, shadowy conspiracies, cryogenically preserved presidents who have been erased from the history books . . . Hijinks ensue. Besides a lot of wacky humor, grown-up references that sail right over my son's heads . . . 
. . . some not-so-subtle shout-outs to my favorite shows from the past . . . 
The show has a lot of heart. Here's creator Alex Hirsch on how the show ended up wearing its heart on its sleeve: I'd say that my sensibilities lean more towards straight comedy, but my feeling was that if I was going to do a kids' show, if I'm going to be working on a kids' network, I'm not going to be able to go full-on crazy hardcore intense comedy, because that won't be allowed here. So my feeling was, if I can't be this crazy intense super-comedy, I'll be as funny as I can but I'll try to be something else. I'll try to be . . . how about sweet and sincere? I'll try to have some magical realism and do my best at doing stories that have some emotional truth to them, because that would round out the entertainment meal. It's one of those things where I've pitched to other networks before and I've talked to people in different studios, and I think there's sort of a fear in some places, particularly at networks that have an over-emphasis on being cool or trying to follow what they think the zeitgeist is this minute. There's a fear of sincerity, and a fear of characters being emotionally invested. There's kind of a "can't the characters all just be kind of sassy jerks who don't learn anything?" I was raised in the '90s. I love Seinfeld. You know what I mean? I love it. But I kind of thought it would be an interesting challenge and it would be a rewarding challenge to create something that had stories with some kind of, not melodrama, but drama. Personal drama. And in terms of infusing it with magic and stuff, that's a challenge. It's a challenge figuring out how to take a conflict that's internal and how to externalize it with some sort of visual metaphor, and how to make that adventure fit with our world. That's the challenge of writing on the show, and sometimes we do it better than others. It's a lot of work, but it's also a lot of fun. ADDENDA: Happy President's Day, America! Remember, we're honoring all presidents on this day . . . including Charles Logan. 
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