I always liked Fandango’s Who Won the Week post, and like to join in with some quirky stories from my own newsfeeds. All from our unique vantage points, the idea is to pick something (a person, organisation, anything) which “won” the week.

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But this week, I’m treading on Fandango’s home turf. And going to write about US politics, to boot.

It’s unusual that, in death, somebody could “win” the week, but in all seriousness, I think RBG won the week. It was not a name I had ever heard of until maybe Friday, but on this side of the Atlantic, why would I? But today I looked up a few numbers – in that respect, thank goodness for the internet because all of these numbers were quite easy to obtain just by looking through the records from the U.S. Senate itself.

Let me throw those numbers out there. Don’t worry, there aren’t many.

In 1993, Bill Clinton had just been elected president. The Democrats were on a high. They controlled the Senate, at the start of the session 58:42, and even at the end, by 53:47.

So you would expect that, roughly, votes would go along those lines, wouldn’t you?

1993 was also the year that Ginsberg was appointed. In the confirmation hearing, 3 August, the Senate confirmed her appointment by 96:3, with 1 non-voter.

Think about that for a moment. Despite “party lines”, she was approved almost unanimously. 40-odd senators, despite disagreeing with her politics, voted for her anyway.

Now, ask yourself, could that kind of thing happen in 2020? Now, ask yourself why not. Were ahose Republican senators back then “wet”, for supporting a Democrat appointment? All except for three of them?

Ruth Ginsberg won the week because even in death, she leaves us with these observations.