Even if the discussion will go nowhere, it must continue; otherwise there is no downside to obstructionism. I’d like to see Obama in the news every day about appointing a Supreme.
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Memories are short in today’s world. New events overtake the old. This drama will be well played out and mostly forgotten by the time of the election. That may be one reason McConnell shut down hearings, to cut it off early and put it to bed. People walking into the voting booth in November are not going to still be seething about the lack of a SCOTUS nominee hearing and vote. The few that will still be inflamed about it were probably not voting GOP anyway. Citizens are like puppies; throw down a new chew toy and the gnawed, spittle stained predecessor is soon forgotten.
I want to trust the American people come November, but this cycle conventional wisdom is out the window. The GOP had better hope they’re right that they’ll somehow win the general election AND hold the Senate. My sense at this point is Hillary wins and the GOP loses the Senate, in part and especially in the crucial races, because of this issue. If the frustration is that DC is sclerotic and dysfunctional, the GOP is proving to be the problem in bright lights here. If it is still lingering white resentment against a black President, that President is leaving in January. As that realization dawns, even on Trump voters, it may well change the dynamic.
If the GOP is right, the best they can hope for is selecting one of Trump’s beauty contest judges – do they really want Kid Rock on the Supreme Court? My sense is the GOP is courting massive failure, but again all conventional wisdom is off the table, out the window and now somewhere in outer space, orbiting with the Overton Window.
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A black leaving the Oval Office, only to be replaced by a woman, gains Democrats no respite from gridlock and inertia in governing. Whatever hatred the GOP reserved for Obama will be magnified tenfold for Hillary. THEY HATE HER. It will be four long years of Benghazi, e-mails, Bill, Whitewater, Huma Abedin, Monica Lewinsky, Gennifer Flowers, the stained blue dress, on and on and on and on. Republicans hate women in general, and they hold an unrivaled enmity for Hillary. The mood under President Hillary will serve merely as an extension of Obama’s terms, and possibly be even worse.
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I was just listening to an NPR story that pulled out Biden’s words and wondered to myself if there was a Republican response at the time to Biden’s words that could be used as a counter argument. Look, I’m fully aware that there is some level of hypocrisy inherent in partisanship; it goes with the territory. But there’s a difference between discussing something philosophically and actually holding the country hostage to it.
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That is a truly cynical and stereotyped view. Please don’t bother telling me that cynical is a label invented by optimists to use to bash realists. I’m aware of that trope.
Stereotypes exist for a reason. If the challengers drop the issue, you’re likely right. I believe that Strickland, Duckworth, Feingold and whoever is going to run against Toomey are smart enough not to drop the issue.
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The 1 person who “likes” your comments is you, right?
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People question the sanity of the guy that is seemingly always at the task of beating a dead horse, even knowing said horse kicked him a few minutes before the whipping commenced.
Fine. What’s the answer then?
It appears to me that your answer is, give up: We’re fucked and we should just learn to like it? Sorry, but I prefer Mother Jones approach: “Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.”
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and it turns out that Obama was 100% right about Alito. There should have been a filibuster and he should never have been confirmed.
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I wonder how many qualified judges are going to be willing to be placed front and center in this mess? Would it actually lessen their chances of confirmation in a future administration to have been put forward but not considered?
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it should always be noted that Biden was speaking hypothetically about a justice resigning in order to allow Bush 1 to appoint his/her successor. at the time Bill Clinton had fixed the D nomination and was well ahead of poppy in the polls.
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Well, yes, but what Biden actually called for was not deferring a nomination to the next elected President, but for the current President to delay the nomination and therefore the subsequent hearings until after the actual election in November - and this only if an opening occurred in the summer during the heat of the campaign,
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Yeah, the GOP obstruction here being the equivalent of what the Dems have done is like saying that Hiroshima is the same as a street mugging.
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I am sorry to say that Sen Grassley is another goose stepping Republican. The GOP has for years held its Congressmen and Senators feet to the fire if they dare think or act on their own. They all vote, think and obstruct in unanimity. Seemingly decent people like Sen Grassley have forever stained their reputations.
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what reputation? it was already well stained
Last sentence should shame Grassley------but it won’t.
A sterling record. A deep respect for the judiciary’s role. An understanding of the way the world really works. That’s what I’m considering as I fulfill my constitutional duty to appoint a judge to our highest court. And as Senators prepare to fulfill their constitutional responsibility to consider the person I appoint, I hope they’ll move quickly to debate and then confirm this nominee so that the Court can continue to serve the American people at full strength.
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Hiroshima/Democrat analogies don’t really play well, you know, seeing as it was a Democrat that committed that particular act of genocide.
The issue is really an existential one for the GOP. They see the demographic wave moving against them and are fighting a rearguard action. They know they have the House at least until the next Census begets a massive redistricting. The Presidency and the Senate provide the slimmest of hopes so the SCOTUS is really their bulwark against the deluge and now, unexpectedly, that is threatening to crumble.
Their only hope is that through some miracle they can win the Presidency and gain control of the nominations for one more cycle and pack the Court while they try to figure a way out of the box they have created. You can see the stress in McConnell’s face if you look at the current pictures of him.
This move is a sign of how desperate the GOP is as they gamble everything on one last throw of the dice.
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