Joni Ernst says she'd be happy to vote on a Supreme Court nominee in a lame duck session

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst told reporters Friday that even if Donald Trump and the Senate Republicans lose in November, she'd support the lame-duck Senate confirming a lame-duck appointed Supreme Court nominee before Joe Biden came to office in January. You might be asking, "is this a complete turn-around for Ernst from the last Supreme Court nomination in a presidential election year?" You are right to ask that. It is.

"(If) it is a lame-duck session, I would support going ahead with any hearings that we might have," Ernst said during a taping of the Iowa Press show on Iowa PBS. "And if it comes to an appointment prior to the end of the year, I would be supportive of that." The question has arisen because of the announcement from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that she is again getting treatment for cancer. This gleeful looking forward from Ernst is even more ghoulish when you consider what she was saying during the 9-month boycott of Merrick Garland, President Obama's failed nominee to replace Antonin Scalia.

In 2016, it was all about letting the voters have their way. "We will see what the people say this fall and our next president, regardless of party, will be making that nomination," Ernst said. "We understand that, in November if people are unhappy with the way that we have been governing in the United States Senate, they would speak out," Ernst said. "But from what we have heard, people are excited about the opportunity to voice their opinion through the ballot box, whether they're Democrats, whether they're Republicans."

She's already out for revenge against the 2020 voters who are likely to throw Trump and Republicans senators—maybe even her!—out on their ears. Revenge, retribution, corruption, hypocrisy, whatever you want to call it, it's the GOP way. It's what's going to boot Republicans—even Ernst—out in November.