Article snippet: The Senate confirmation battle over Brett Kavanaugh was the most vicious Supreme Court fight since Clarence Thomas narrowly won confirmation in 1991. The victors will reap the spoils of success and the losers will lick their wounds and brace for the inevitable fallout a month ahead of the midterm elections. Winners: Senate Majority Leader MORE (R-Ky.) McConnell has long had an up-and-down relationship with conservative activists, who have criticized him through the years for cutting deals with Democrats. But they have to acknowledge the GOP leader has had a major impact on the court. McConnell often prefers to stay out of the spotlight and played more of a behind-the-scenes role in last year’s effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare and reform the tax code. But McConnell spearheaded the defense of Kavanaugh and never wavered in his support, quashing any chatter in the GOP conference about having the embattled nominee withdraw after Christine Blasey Ford accused him of sexual assault at a high school party. Even McConnell’s conservative critics hailed his defense of Kavanaugh, which kept the Senate GOP conference unified. It’s an impressive encore for the leader, who was fiercely criticized by Democrats for keeping the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia vacant for nearly a year and blocking former President Obama’s nominee, D.C. Circuit Court Chief Judge MORE. “It’s big and obviously this ended up being a lot harder than the Gorsuch nomination,” McConnell i... Link to the full article to read more