Payback will be the focus of Supreme Court hearings

We have a victim — I mean — Supreme Court nominee!

“Today, I am keeping another promise by nominating Judge Neil Gorsuch…” Trump announced Tuesday.

Related: Local impact on abortion rights with Trump’s Supreme Court nomination

Gorsuch wasted no time in displaying something that I don’t think we’ve yet seen in the man who appointed him — humility.

“Practicing in the trial work trenches of the law, I saw, too, that when we judges don our robes, it doesn’t make us any smarter, but it does serve as a reminder of what’s expected of us: Impartiality and independence, collegiality and courage,” the Supreme Court pick said.

By that, he means that you judge impartially, in consultation with others, and reach decisions according to this overriding principle.

“It is the role of judges to apply, not alter, the work of the people’s representatives. A judge who likes every outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge…” Gorsuch said.

Who could disagree with that? In normal times, almost no one. But the Democrats have a score to settle, and within the hour Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi was saying the nomination was all about diverting attention from Friday’s travel bans.

“They see the immigration problem looming and so they decide on an earlier schedule to appoint a justice of the Supreme Court … It’s always to change the subject,” she said.

So I know we were all looking forward to deep discussions about judicial concepts like mens rea and stare decisis, but these hearings, in large part, will be about a concept called payback.

Democrats will ask how Gorsuch will rule on abortion, and he won’t say. And then they’ll ask it a different way, and he still won’t say.

And once they’ve accumulated enough sound clips to be able to say “I told you so” in the event he does provide the deciding vote to reverse Roe v. Wade, he’ll be confirmed. Because he went to Columbia, Harvard, and Oxford for crying out loud!

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