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For the Record: Political theater! Get your popcorn

Brett McGinness   | Paste BN

We know how this will play out ... Merrick Garland has joined this election year kabuki theater, where (hopefully) everyone knows that this is just for show in order to rack up political points ahead of November. We don't know how this one will play out, though ... the battle for the Republican nomination is a bit more cloak-and-dagger, with half a dozen conspiracy theories taking hold ahead of a potential contested convention. If you want to keep up with the latest plot twists, subscribe to the For the Record newsletter, delivering the latest headlines to your inbox six days a week. Now, let's pull back the curtain on the drama ...

Merrick, we hardly knew ye

Yesterday morning, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to be a political football in the ongoing feud about filling the vacant Supreme Court seat. On the plus side for Garland, he won't have to endure any sort of scrutiny from Senate Republicans. On the downside, it's practically a lock that he's not going to be a member of the high court at any point. At this point Obama seems to be toying with Republicans on nominees to see how far they're willing to take their pledge not to consider any of his nominees — Garland is someone that GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch spoke highly of just weeks ago, while the previous name leaked was an actual Republican rising star. Next up: Obama nominates Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Not surprisingly, the remaining major-party candidates split along party lines as to whether Obama should have made a nomination in the first place. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders say Garland should be given a hearing. Donald Trump says the next president should be the one to make the nomination; John Kasich says the heat of an election year isn't the right time to nominate anyone; and Ted Cruz says "the so-called 'moderate' Democrat" is the type of guy that Trump would end up nominating.

Sorry, Merrick ... this won't be happening. But hey, at least you won't get your dirty laundry aired out for several weeks this spring.

Today in contested convention news

Now that the dust has settled in the Missouri primary, Trump has 673 delegates toward the Republican nomination — a little over 54% of the number he needs to clinch. The latest contested convention gossip:

She's almost deliberately churning out sound bites for the opposition

Neither Trump nor Hillary Clinton has secured a spot in the general election, but that hasn't stopped Trump from turning one of Hillary's more awkward speech moments into a campaign ad. Taking her dog barking clip out of context is just outrageous! Why, if you look at the moment in context ... wait, no. It was still weird. Meanwhile, her ill-advised pledge to "put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business" probably will make a comeback later this summer, especially in the coal-producing swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa and Colorado. New theory: Hillary Clinton is a deep-cover operative for the anti-Hillary Clinton faction.

More from the campaign trail

  • In case there's any doubt who's in the GOP driver's seat: Republican debate canceled once Trump bails out (Paste BN OnPolitics)
  • Sanders: 'Phoenix, are you ready for a political revolution?' Phoenix: 'Oh, is that still happening?' (Arizona Republic)
  • Jeb Bush wasn't even running, but he won 2% of the Florida vote. What a missed opportunity! Imagine what he could have done with money and political backing (Paste BN OnPolitics)

Nothing personal, just business

"Trump called you a child molester; now you're supporting him. What's up with that?"

"Yeah, that worked really well for him, huh? Well played, sir."

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