Two things that are both true: Donald Trump is unfit to be president, and Amy Coney Barrett will be an excellent Supreme Court Justice

 I only got to watch a little of the hearing proceedings this morning while I was in a public place where a television was on. I caught Sheldon Whitehouse's toxic grandstanding about big Republican donors. I saw Ted Cruz give a fine explanation of why this nomination fits into longstanding precedents. I saw Amy Klochubar spend her time talking about Donald Trump's penchant for lying rather than the matter at hand.

Look, it would clearly be infinitely better if this nomination had occurred under a truly conservative president with a record of integrity and coherence. It's the height of misfortune that it's happening under Trump with the surrounding circumstances, particularly the timing, being what they are. 

Be that as it may, it is a fine thing for this country that Barrett will be filling the current vacancy on the Supreme Court. 

Any left-leaner who isn't completely given over to tribalism knows as much. The American Bar Association has given her its "well qualified" rating.  Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman says this about her:

I disagree with much of her judicial philosophy and expect to disagree with many, maybe even most of her future votes and opinions. Yet despite this disagreement, I know her to be a brilliant and conscientious lawyer who will analyze and decide cases in In her opening sttementgood faith, applying the jurisprudential principles to which she is committed. Those are the basic criteria for being a good justice. Barrett meets and exceeds them.

To say she's well-regarded by alumni and fellow faculty of Notre Dame law school is an understatement:

Her respect among her colleagues and students is reflected in the fact that she has been elected professor of the year three times by the law school’s graduating class and in letters of support for her nomination to the 7th Circuit, including ones signed by all of her full-time faculty colleagues at Notre Dame, all of her fellow Supreme Court clerks, hundreds of former students and dozens of prominent law professors from around the country.  

 In her opening statement for these hearings, she makes clear what her approach to judging is:

This demonstration of solid understanding of the role of the judicial branch in the workings of the federal government make all the more laughable claims by some of those howling about her nomination that it's "unconstitutional."

And the claim by the likes of Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin that the difference in the way the Merrick and Barrett nominations have been handled amounts to Republican court-packing is a lot of disingenuous hooey. There are different precedents applicable in each case - namely, whether the Senate and the White House are controlled by different parties or the same party.

Look, the Republicans have definitely lived up to their image as the stupid party in the name of Trump. He was supposed to be the Queens brawler who would do what the supposed effete little pointy-heads couldn't do: halt the advance of leftism in America. But he's failed, and his failure is probably going to result in an acceleration in that advance. 

One does not have to be a leg-humper for the Very Stable Genius to applaud the pretty much certain confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court Justice. She'll give that body an originalist majority, and an expanded number of seats, even if the Democrats take the Senate, is unlikely. 

Heartening developments in post-America are not easy to come by, but this is unequivocally one of them.