Neverending success? Olive Garden sales boom

Darden Restaurants announced late Monday that it was buying Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, a casual dining chain with 165 restaurants in 28 states, for $780 million cash. The company also announced earnings and sales that topped forecasts.

Shares of Darden (DRI) rose 7% in early trading on the news and hit an all-time high.

The Cheddar’s deal gives Darden another brand that is regionally popular but does not have a national footprint. Most Cheddar’s locations are in Texas and the Southeast.

Cheddar’s focuses on American comfort food classics like chicken-fried steak, ribs, and macaroni and cheese. This is the first acquisition for Darden since it bought the Yard House chain in 2012. Darden sold Red Lobster to private equity firms in 2014.

In addition to Olive Garden and Yard House, Darden owns the LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze and Eddie V’s chains.

The good news for Darden is the latest in a stunning turnaround since the company was essentially taken over by the activist investor group Starboard in 2014.

Starboard successfully led a shareholder revolt that caused then-CEO Clarence Otis to step down and the company’s COO at the time, Gene Lee, to replace him — with Starboard’s blessing.

Related: Olive Garden unveils its latest all-you-can-eat deal

Starboard attacked Darden in a scathing slide presentation that detailed all the culinary sins that the investment firm thought were ruining the company and keeping investors away, such as too much sauce and a menu that had strayed from its Italian-American roots.

My colleague Cristina Alesci and I did our own taste test in 2014 after Starboard unleashed its attack on the company — and we concurred with Starboard. We did not find Olive Garden’s food to our liking.

But since Starboard took over, the company has been in growth mode again. And the investment has been such a success that Starboard leader Jeffrey Smith decided to step down as Darden chairman last year, citing the progress the company had made in its turnaround.

Olive Garden sales have picked up, largely because of a changing menu mix and higher prices. One problem the company is still having is that it has been unable to dramatically expand its customer base.

The chain’s traffic fell slightly again in the quarter and is lower for the fiscal year as well. But Darden has held up well in an environment that has been tough for some other restaurant chains lately.

Lower prices for many agricultural commodities have led people to take advantage of cheaper groceries and dine in more instead of eating out.

And as long as Olive Garden keeps offering its famous breadsticks and neverending pasta passes, it looks like investors will be just as satisfied with Darden’s stock as Olive Garden loyalists are with its food.

CNNMoney (New York) First published March 28, 2017: 11:42 AM ET

Don’t use cotton swabs to clean your ears

Updated clinical guidelines published Tuesday in the journal Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery say they’re not appropriate for earwax removal. In fact, information for patients in the guidelines say no to putting anything “smaller than your elbow in your ear.”

Regardless, most of us hoard a stash of the soft-tipped paper sticks; they seem so perfectly suited to that dirty job.

So the authors of the guidelines — an advisory panel of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery — have injected a little bit of freshness into the usual advice, giving more explanation as to “Why not?” They even included a consumer representative on the panel.

“We really have come to appreciate that clinicians are not the only users of (the guidelines), that patients are really interested in their own care and people are really taking ownership of their own care,” said Dr. Seth Schwartz, chairman of the guideline update group for the academy.

Here’s why not: Cotton swabs, hair pins, house keys and toothpicks — the many smaller-than-our-elbow-objects we love to put in our ears — can cause cuts in our ear canals, perforate our eardrums and dislocate our hearing bones. And any of these things could lead to hearing loss, dizziness, ringing or other symptoms of ear injury.

Instead, most people can just let nature do its job. Our bodies produce earwax to keep our ears lubricated, clean and protected: Dirt, dust and anything else that might enter our ears gets stuck to the wax, which keeps any such particles from moving farther into the ear canal. Our usual jaw motions from talking and chewing, along with skin growth within the canal, typically helps move old earwax from inside to the outside the ear, where it is washed off during bathing.

The guidelines published in 2008 were overdue for an update. While new randomized trials have been included, “nothing very dramatic” has changed, other than an improvement in the methodology itself, said Schwartz: “The process has become a little more transparent in the way we actually write the guidelines now. We are more clear about why the decisions we made are made and what data there is to support it.”

Patient are apparently interested in the nitty-gritty of ear care: More than 50,000 people downloaded the old guideline, Schwartz said.

“It’s kind of amazing how many people were interested in reading that,” he said.

The do’s and don’ts

To be “a little bit more patient-friendly,” the guidelines now include lists of “Do’s and Don’t’s” for everyone and a list for people who have had problems with cerumen impaction, the official term for earwax buildup, a condition that is more common among the elderly, according to Dr. James Battey, director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

Impaction can occur when the ear’s self-cleaning process doesn’t work very well. The resulting waxy buildup blocks the ear canal, causing difficulty hearing.

“For those with impacted ear wax, the use of cotton-tipped swabs may push the earwax deeper into the ear canal and harm the eardrum,” Battey said. He added that “about 2% of adults with impacted earwax may go the doctor with hearing loss as their symptom.”

“Impacted earwax is best addressed by a health care professional,” he said.

In the all-important “Don’t” section, you’ll find warnings against “overcleaning” your ears. Excessive cleaning may increase earwax impaction, according to the authors.

“It’s cultural” to want clear ears, Schwartz said, but “wiping away any excess wax when it comes to the outside of the ear is enough to keep it clean.”

Another warning in the new guidelines: Do not use ear candles. Not only can they cause “serious damage” to your eardrum, “there is no evidence that they remove impacted cerumen,” wrote the authors.

“Home therapies are fairly effective,” Schwartz said, adding that the “whole host” of over-the-counter wax-softening drops as well as home-use irrigators are effective and safe. “Even drops of water in the ear can be effective to soften the wax,” he added.

See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

Still, among the items on the “Do” list is to ask your health care provider about how to treat earwax impaction at home, since “you may have certain medical or ear conditions that may make some options unsafe.”

“It’s not a bad thing to have wax in your ears. Everybody does and should. It’s more of an issue when it becomes too much,” Schwartz said. The guideline definition of “too much” is an operational one: If you have symptoms — such as pain, drainage, bleeding or hearing loss — then you have a problem.

“If it’s causing symptoms, absolutely go to your doctor,” Schwartz said, repeating what is likely the most important “Do” list recommendation. Still, some people attribute their symptoms to wax buildup when it’s just not the case.
Among older people, “hearing loss becomes very, very common,” said Schwartz.

In fact, aging, along with infections and exposure to loud noise, is one of the most common causes of acquired hearing loss, according to Battey.

Yet many people cannot imagine that they’ve begun to lose their hearing, and as a result of this disbelief, Schwartz said, “a patient has wax cleared, and then their doctor needs to look deeper.”

Congress kills Internet privacy protections

The House of Representatives voted Tuesday to repeal Internet privacy protections that were approved by the Federal Communications Commission in the final days of the Obama administration.

The Senate voted along party lines to undo the rules last week. The resolution now goes to Trump’s desk. The White House said Tuesday it “strongly supports” the repeal.

The rules, which had not yet gone into effect, would have required Internet service providers to get your permission before collecting and sharing your data. The providers have data on your web browsing history, app usage and geo-location.

Providers would also have been required to notify customers about the types of information collected and shared.

Related: Why Silicon Valley isn’t fighting to save the Internet (yet)

The privacy rules were intended to give consumers extra control over their personal data online at a time when everything from smartphones to refrigerators can be connected to the Internet.

Opponents of the privacy rules argued it would place an undue burden on broadband providers while leaving large Internet companies like Facebook (FB, Tech30) and Google (GOOGL, Tech30) free to collect user data without asking permission.

Representative Michael Burgess, a Republican, described the rules as “duplicative regulation” on the House floor and said the repeal would “level the playing field for an increasingly anti-competitive market.”

But rather than apply similar protections to more businesses, the Republican-controlled Congress voted to scrap the rules entirely.

Democrats and privacy advocates have argued this approach effectively hands over the customer’s personal information to the highest bidder.

“It totally wipes out privacy protections for consumers on the Internet,” Democratic Representative Anna Eshoo said on the floor. “I don’t want anyone to take my information and sell it to someone and make a ton of money off of it just because they can get their mitts on it.”

Michael Capuano, a Democratic Representative, took it one step further. “Just last week, I bought underwear on the internet,” he said. “Why should you know what size I take, or the color, or any of that information?

internet privacy

Many broadband providers already share some of their customers’ browsing behavior with advertisers. Providers typically offer the choice to opt out, but consumers may not even be aware of this data collection — let alone how to get out of it.

With Facebook and Google, weary users may choose to limit their activity on the sites or switch to rival services. But switching providers is often difficult, as is hiding your Internet activity from your Internet provider.

“Most people can’t simply walk away from their Internet service provider,” says Neema Singh Guliani, legislative counsel at the ACLU. “They need the Internet and they may not have another option.”

A virtual private network, or VPN, is one option to protect your online activity. One service, NordVPN, says it has seen a “sharp increase” in consumer interest in the days since the Senate vote.

Related: Worried about companies spying on your browsing? Here’s what you can do

The repeal is a big win for large providers like AT&T (T, Tech30) and Verizon (VZ, Tech30). They have bet billions on content, including AT&T’s pending acquisition of Time Warner, the parent company of CNN.

This content can potentially be paired with subscriber data to build up lucrative targeted advertising businesses that compete with Google and Facebook.

“I don’t think of it as game over,” says Guliani, who predicts Republicans will face pushback from their constituents for the privacy vote. “I think of it as a setback.”

CNNMoney (New York) First published March 28, 2017: 6:06 PM ET

Other celebrities battling lupus

Celebrities battling lupus

Celebrities battling Lupus – Selena Gomez’s struggle with lupus has interrupted two of her concert tours and forced her to undergo chemotherapy to control the disease.

Celebrities battling lupus

Celebrities battling lupus

Celebrities battling lupus

Singer Toni Braxton has been hospitalized several times to bring her lupus under control. She told the world about her condition in 2010 and in 2014 wrote “Unbreak My Heart,” a memoir in which she revealed that her uncle died from the disease.

Celebrities battling lupus

“Third Rock from the Sun” star Kristen Johnston had to take a break from work in 2013 when she developed a rare form of lupus that attacks the spinal cord. After chemotherapy, she has said she’s in remission.

Celebrities battling lupus

Soccer star Shannon Boxx has been battling lupus since she was 30 years old. She went public with her condition in 2012, continuing to play for the U.S. women’s soccer team and working with lupus organizations to spread awareness of the disease.

Celebrities battling lupus

The scars of a skin form of lupus left a distinctive pattern on British singer Seal’s face. The singer has battled the disease since he was a child.

Celebrities battling lupus

Former model and “Extra” correspondent Terri Seymour says she nearly lost her life to lupus in her early 20s, and has struggled with flares since.

Celebrities battling lupus

Actress Mary Elizabeth McDonough, best known for her work on “The Waltons,” has been advocating for those with lupus since that time. She struggled with many typical symptoms of the disease for years before getting a diagnosis.

Celebrities battling lupus

John Wayne’s oldest son Michael suffered from lupus for years before dying of complications of the disease at age 68. Michael collaborated with his famous father on several well-known films, such as “The Green Berets” and “The Train Robbers.”

The hidden costs of segregation

But how does economic and racial segregation in a handful of neighborhoods affect the rest of a metropolitan area?

The Urban Institute analyzed data from the 100 most populous metro areas in the 1990, 2000 and 2010 censuses and found that less segregated regions had higher average incomes and educational attainment and lower homicide rates.

And despite efforts to integrate schools and neighborhoods, the report concludes that the United States remains “starkly segregated” by race and income. That leads to worse regional outcomes on the whole, the report says, though trends vary across the country.

The report argues that more inclusion builds safer, smarter and richer regions.

Economic and racial segregation tend to go hand in hand

Regions with more segregation between blacks and whites are more economically segregated, the study found. The relationship is weaker when measuring Latino-white segregation.

The metro areas with the highest composite economic and racial segregation rankings in 2010 were:

– Philadelphia

– Bridgeport, Connecticut

– New York

– Milwaukee, Wisconsin

– Chicago

– Cleveland

– Newark, New Jersey

– Los Angeles

– Kansas City, Missouri

– Detroit

To define a metropolitan area the report uses the census definition of a commuting zone, which is a group of counties whose commuters form a unified regional labor market.

Six of the top 10 were the same in 1990 and 2010. Bridgeport, Los Angeles, Kansas City and Detroit replaced Gary, Indiana, and Houston, Washington and Dallas.

Economic segregation is on the rise

In regions where there is a high level of economic segregation, access to education, jobs, housing and public services is largely concentrated in the areas where high-income people live, and far away from where low-income people live.

This kind of economic segregation can take a toll on the economy of the region as a whole, because it keeps workers away from potential employers.

Places with greater segregation between low- and high-income people also tend to have greater income inequality on the whole.

What does an economically segregated region look like? Take for example New York City, which tops the list. People living in affluent neighborhoods reap the benefits of good schools, low crime rates and access to public services, while those priced out of those areas may have to travel farther for access to services, work or school — if they can afford the trip at all. The result is uneven distribution of wealth, which keeps poor neighborhoods poor and limits potential spillover effects of affluence.

Previous studies have found that economic segregation is higher today than it was in 1970, with the share of Americans living in middle-income neighborhoods dropping from 65% then to 42% in 2009.

The report takes a closer look at the trend. It found that between 1990 and 2000, economic segregation decreased in 92 metropolitan areas. Then, in 2000, the trend began to reverse and from 2000 to 2010, economic segregation increased in 72 areas as high-poverty and high-affluence neighborhoods began to outnumber mixed-class, middle-income neighborhoods.

Racial segregation is slowly declining…

…sort of. Black-white segregation in the 100 metro areas examined in the report dropped on average, from 1990 to 2010, while Latino-white segregation increased.

In general, however, blacks and whites tend to be more segregated from one another than Latinos and whites.

Whites tend to benefit most from high degrees of racial segregation, according to the study. They earn higher wages, complete college at higher rates and get higher-status jobs. Segregation undermines these same outcomes for Latinos and blacks, thereby limiting the segregated region’s potential to boost its overall economic prospects.

Segregation is most detrimental for black people

When people have access to safer neighborhoods and better schools, their educational attainment and job prospects improve, benefiting the entire population of a region, the study’s authors argue. Steady, high-paying jobs increase individual and per capita incomes, which means cash flows back into communities through home ownership, taxes and consumer spending.

When levels of segregation are high in a region, black residents tend to suffer most, the report found.

Higher levels of economic segregation are associated with lower median and per capita income for blacks. Additionally, higher levels of racial segregation are associated with lower incomes and lower educational attainment for blacks.

The effects add up. Higher levels of black-white segregation are associated with lower levels of educational attainment for blacks and whites and lower levels of safety for all area residents.

On the other hand, neither economic segregation nor racial segregation is significantly related to white or Latino median or per capita income.

Using Chicago as a case study, the report’s authors argue reducing racial and economic segregation to the median level could increase black per capita income and educational attainment and lower the homicide rate.

“If actors at the city, county and state levels could break down barriers to local inclusion, entire regions could benefit from higher incomes and education levels and fewer homicides,” the authors write.

They want President to stick to leading the country

But there’s one tweet that several assembled Trump voters — who expressed varying degrees of enthusiasm for the President — could agree on.

According to many of his supporters, Trump was wrong about “Saturday Night Live” being unwatchable and Alec Baldwin’s impersonation not being good.

“He has no sense of humor,” one tweeted.

“Humor at its best,” another said.

“Alec Baldwin did a fabulous job!”

Trump has more than 27 million followers on his personal Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump. Another 16 million people follow his official presidential account, @POTUS.

To some, including Trump himself, Twitter offers a chance to bypass media that they see as biased or dishonest — and an opportunity for the country’s leader to engage with the masses in the moment.

“I feel it’s a great way to reach out to your constituents and create a give-and-take, because people obviously respond to his tweets, retweet the tweets,” said Ilene Wood of Emmaus, Pennsylvania. “In general, I’m in favor of it.”

Emma Leach, who became a die-hard fan of then-candidate Trump after attending a campaign rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, says Trump’s use of Twitter energizes younger people, such as herself.

A few years ago, Leach said, she could have asked a friend what Obama did in office that day, and she wouldn’t have known.

“But today she’ll know what Trump tweeted or what Trump did or what executive order happened,” Leach said. “She’s involved now.”

Of the Trump voters that CNN spoke with in eastern Pennsylvania, two months into Trump’s term, most didn’t mind that the President uses such an unorthodox method of communication.

“It’s like a modern-day constituent letter,” Leach said. “They’re tweeting at their president, they’re voicing their opinion, and they’re more politically involved.”

But the immediacy is a double-edged sword.

“In some situations, that’s an excellent thing because he’s able to get the word out very quickly and perhaps get reactions and responses back,” said Wood. “But at the same time, it creates a possibility of engaging your mouth before you’ve engaged your brain.”

Scott McCommons of Altoona, is a lifelong Democrat who crossed party lines to vote for Trump and follows Trump on Twitter.

“I think he rants and raves. He doesn’t think about it,” said McCommons, who said his opinion of Trump has changed for the worse, in large part because of his tweeting. “I think he can do a lot better things with his time.”

McCommons said he now regrets his vote, going so far as to tweet at Trump, “Your twitter rants are out of control – I voted for you to make America great again, run the country sir!”

It’s not Twitter, It’s the topic

It’s a common theme among these Trump supporters: they wish the President would stick to the theme of leading the country.

“He needs to tone it down and forget about Snoop Dogg, forget about Arnold Schwarzenegger. We don’t really care about them, do we?” said Ray Starner, who always wanted to see a businessman lead the country. Now, Starner said he would prefer to see Trump focus on jobs, health care and uniting the country.

Also taking a toll on Trump’s base? Baseless accusations.

Several supporters expressed disappointment at Trump for tweeting before he has all the facts, including his tweet, “How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during this sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”

Mark Hanna is a former law enforcement officer who follows the news, but not all of Trump’s tweets. When he saw media reports about the wire tapping accusations, he said: “Even if he felt that way, I don’t think he should have tweeted it.”

Trump’s tweets offer some insight into the President’s thinking and the man himself, and his use of social media can even supplement mainstream media.

Checking Twitter became a regular part of McCommon’s day, he said. “It used to be my favorite thing to do in the morning because I wanted to see what he had to say. I wanted to see if it matched up with what I heard on TV, from the news media, from his press conferences, to see if he was being honest.”

While supporters might not trust everything the President tweets, they generally have faith in Trump himself.

It was just last Thanksgiving that Hanna heard of Twitter for the first time. By the evening’s end, his son had set up a Twitter account for him.

“My first tweet was to Donald Trump, at the dinner table. I said ‘Congratulations on winning the election, and I’m looking forward to you leading our country,'” Hanna said.

It’s a sentiment he still holds.

“The good far outweighs the bad to me,” Hanna said. “I’m thinking Trump 2020.”

Tennessee kidnapping law could work in teacher’s favor

District Attorney Brent Cooper of the 22nd Judicial Circuit wants to change that, and he hopes state lawmakers consider Elizabeth’s case when they convene next year, he told CNN on Tuesday. Through an attorney, Elizabeth’s father, Anthony Thomas, said he wants the law changed immediately.
The way it’s written now, the statute lets children older than 12 decide whether to leave their families, unless their removal or confinement “is accomplished by force, threat or fraud.”
Police say 50-year-old Tad Cummins, who taught Elizabeth in a forensics class at Culleoka Unit School, absconded with the freshman March 13, weeks after a student claimed to see the two kissing in Cummins’ classroom.

The investigation led authorities to Decatur, Alabama, later that day before the two vanished.

As it stands, to prove the kidnapping of a victim who is 12 or older, Cooper said, he’d have to prove that Elizabeth was unlawfully removed or had her freedom restricted.

Further, to prove that Elizabeth was unlawfully removed, he’d need to demonstrate to a jury that Cummins employed “force, coercion, fraud or something to that effect,” the prosecutor said.

“What we run into here, of course, is this child is 15 and, according to reports, at least initially, she left of her own free will,” he said.

The issue was especially concerning at the outset of the investigation, Cooper said. Cummins was charged only with sexual contact with a minor by an authority figure, a misdemeanor. Investigators worried that if police stopped the pair out of state, they’d be released because authorities couldn’t detain them, let alone extradite Cummins, on a misdemeanor warrant.

Cooper ultimately felt comfortable adding the aggravated kidnapping charge after deciding that Cummins allegedly groomed his victim and was armed, the latter being a prerequisite for aggravated kidnapping. (Grooming is the act of establishing a connection with a child with the goal of defusing her or his inhibitions toward sexual abuse.)

The prosecutor says the present law could pose obstacles once he has Cummins in a courtroom.

“Under current law, it’s really going to depend what the testimony of Ms. Thomas is,” Cooper said, explaining that if she claims she left on her own volition, the defense will argue Cummins is not guilty of kidnapping.

Cooper will then have to introduce circumstantial evidence that Elizabeth was coerced. The district attorney is confident the communications between Elizabeth and Cummins show “he was definitely trying to influence her in his favor,” he said.

“This grown man was using his knowledge and life experience to basically attract her and to convince her to be with him,” he said.

In discouraging anyone who might blame Elizabeth for her plight, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn, too, discounted the notion that there was a mutual romance.

“She is 15, a child. He is 50, a grown man. This is and was not a romance. This was manipulation solely to the benefit of Tad Cummins,” Gwyn said.

Attorney Jason Whatley, who is representing Elizabeth’s father, told CNN the kidnapping statute might not matter in Cummins’ case, especially if he crossed state lines with Elizabeth. He predicted the ex-teacher would face “scores of charges once we find him.”

“I think Tad Cummins will have violated so many laws, I think he’s finished,” Whatley said.

Elizabeth Thomas: The 15-year-old has light brown or blond hair and hazel eyes. She is 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 120 pounds. She was last seen wearing a flannel shirt and black leggings.

Tad Cummins: The 50-year-old has brown hair, brown eyes and a gray goatee. He is 6 feet tall and weighs about 200 pounds. He is believed to be armed.

Vehicle: Silver Nissan Rogue, Tennessee tag 976-ZPT

Reward: $1,000

Who to call: 1-800-TBI-FIND

Source: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation

The Tennessee Legislature is already in session, and the deadline for introducing legislation has passed, Cooper said. Before lawmakers convene again in January, the prosecutor intends to meet individually with legislators to convince them the law needs changing, he said.

An ideal law, he said, would presume that if the victim were younger than 18, she or he could not leave on their own accord. It would be similar to statutory rape laws that place the onus on adults not to break the law, he said.

Whatley says he concurs the law needs to be changed, but as a lawyer who also does defense work, he has reservations about the age limit. He’d hate seeing an 18-year-old accused of kidnapping for taking a 17-year-old on a date after the 17-year-old’s parents forbade it, he said.

Perhaps the correct age is 16 and above, he said, suggesting that the amendment be called “Elizabeth’s Law.”

Amending the law makes sense, Cooper said, when you consider that, in Tennessee, children younger than 18 can’t consent to sex, rent cars or enter into legal contracts.

“This is a much bigger life choice than trying to buy a car,” he said of Elizabeth’s case. “I think it would be a simple fix.”

Walk through Mosul devastation

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Wife posts nude pic of QB on social media

Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press

Scott PolacekFeatured ColumnistMarch 28, 2017

Quarterback Jay Cutler appears to be enjoying the NFL offseason.

His wife Kristin Cavallari posted an NSFW picture of him enjoying a view of the sea on her Instagram page. Sports Illustrated shared a safer version:

 

Cavallari previously noted on her Instagram page they were moving from Chicago after the Bears released Cutler.

The 2008 Pro Bowler is now without an NFL team at the moment, but he doesn’t seem too stressed about it.

Opinion: Dishonesty all around on Gorsuch

In an op-ed for The Arizona Republic, Sen. Jeff Flake declared, “Even President Obama’s two Supreme Court nominees were recognized for their ability to do the job and confirmed without incident.” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas quoted The Wall Street Journal when he tweeted, “Never in U.S. history have we had a successful partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell accused Democrats of using “obstructionist tactics” to thwart the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

Their hypocrisy is palpable.

In referencing President Barack Obama’s “two” Supreme Court nominees, Flake is conveniently forgetting to tell his readers that Obama made three nominations to the Supreme Court, not two: Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, whom the Senate confirmed, and Judge Merrick Garland, whom Senate Republicans refused to consider even though Obama had almost a year left in his term.

Cornyn surely knows that Senate Republicans effectively engaged in a partisan filibuster of Garland’s nomination by refusing even to hold hearings.

And McConnell must recognize that he himself led “obstructionist tactics” to prevent Garland, as Obama’s nominee, from joining the court.

Regardless of the “alternative facts” the Republicans are peddling, we should all understand the GOP’s tactics last year in opposing Garland for what they were: a blatant power grab that ultimately worked.

For their part, Democratic senators who are opposing Gorsuch are not immune from this affliction. There is no principled reason to oppose Gorsuch beyond politics. On any objective measure he is qualified for the job. If Justice Antonin Scalia had passed away this past February, after President Donald Trump took office, then there would be little justification for Democrats to filibuster Gorsuch’s nomination. The Republicans’ brazen action last year on Obama’s nominee clouds the current debate.
Both sides should acknowledge what is really going on: Republicans refused to consider Garland for purely political reasons; Democrats are going to filibuster Gorsuch for similarly partisan justifications.
This state of affairs shows that the Supreme Court confirmation process is broken. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself recognized, some Republican senators who voted to confirm her in 1993 “today wouldn’t touch me with a 10-foot pole.” The Senate voted to confirm Ginsburg by a 96-3 vote. That kind of bipartisanship on Supreme Court nominees is unfathomable today.

What can we do to fix the problem? For one, senators on both sides need to start telling the truth about their real motivations. Republicans should not hide behind a false claim that the Senate treated Obama’s nominees fairly.

Democrats should acknowledge that their filibuster of Gorsuch is directly related to the Republicans’ failure to consider Garland. Actually telling the truth — which should not be so unfathomable — will help voters discern whether to trust the current incumbents come the next election. Senators’ actions should have consequences, but it is difficult for average Americans to evaluate their senator’s activities without honest and accurate information.

In addition, Senate Republicans and the Trump White House should offer Democrats an olive branch. Perhaps it is an agreement to consider only names from a pre-approved list that the Democrats provide for the next vacancy. Maybe Republicans would agree to give Garland a vote if a liberal such as Ginsburg steps down. Or perhaps there is something else that would cause both sides to stand down.

And both because they are in the majority and because they were at fault last year by being so political with the Garland nomination to the Supreme Court, Republicans should be the first actors in a ceasefire. Although the confirmation process was already breaking down somewhat before last year, McConnell pushed it over the edge by refusing to consider Obama’s choice with almost a full year left in the presidential term.

Good leaders know how to compromise for the good of the country. McConnell should show his leadership skills. Both sides are obscuring their real motives for their partisan actions. Neither side’s spin is good for the country.

To get that message across to the Senate, let’s tell our representatives they must acknowledge what they are really doing and force them to account for their political power grabs. It would be the first step in fixing a truly broken process.