Kentucky’s Republican Senate contingent need counseling because their relationship just isn’t working out.  See, one of the–Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell–worked out a deal to have a suspected anti-choice jurist appointed to the federal court in Kentucky by President Joe Biden, but petulant junior Senator and Beaker cosplayer Rand Paul fucked it all up, Politico reports.

While it would have been highly unpopular with his Democratic base to appoint an anti-choice advocate to the bench, Biden has been working to re-establish a series of norms that were in place prior to the shitstorm of the Trump administration, and part of that process was to honor so-called “blue slips,” endorsements of home state Senators to a judicial nominee for the federal bench, and Biden was aware that neither Kentucky Senator would approve of an overtly pro-choice appointee to a US district court seat in the state.

Biden nominated Chad Meredith, deputy chief counsel to former Republican Kentucky Governor Matt Bevins, who defended a state law requiring doctors to force pregnant patients to view ultrasounds of fetuses they are carrying before getting an abortion.  While lawyers do not necessarily have to support the positions they defend in court, most lawyers would ask to be recused from such a high-profile case if they could not personally defend it. 

Paul, however, has a hissy fit that he was not consulted on the nomination and refused to submit a blue slip for Meredith, essentially canceling his nomination.

“McConnell’s to blame for tanking this because he tried to do it secretly, Democrats caught wind up in the state. And they also tried to do it secret[ly]” Paul whined in his typical fashion as he tried to explain his immaturity. “We never heard about it from McConnell’s office. And his people simply said, ‘you can’t do this but we can.’ You know, ‘we’re so powerful, we can do whatever we want.’”