Discussion for article #246339
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You know it doesnât have to be a âBattle Royaleâ. The Constitution is very clear on this. Let Obama nominate, and let the Senate vote.
I suspect that rather than let the process play out, the media (including TPM) is simply using this as a means to gin up hype in an election year, one that is already reaching unprecedented levels of partisan rancor.
So, here, for what its worth, is a suggestion to the media.
Stop.
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I donât know what all these people are on about. Scalia is the one who broke with tradition by dying in a presidential election year. The man is almost causing more trouble dead than he did alive.
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You donât need any precedent, other than the language of the Constitution. The Constitutional duties of the President and Senate in this case are crystal clear. The President will discharge his responsibilities. The only remaining question is whether the Senate will as well.
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If the Senate does not discharge its responsibility, they would be spitting on the Constitution. And, frankly, it really does not get more un-American than that.
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No. Republicans have said that a Supreme Court justice is more important to them than a Senate majority. All but two Republican Senators have said that they will not vote on the matter and it doesnât matter who the nominee is. The other two said âletâs look at them before we vote them downâ.
The media might be fluffing some, but this is not a media created event.
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Repubs War on America .
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You know whatâs far more unprecedented? For armed judicial terrorists to literally plan a crime spree around their legal defense, which is calculated to overthrow the whole Bureau of Land Management and seize the land for themselves. But along comes Ammon Bundy, floating his cockamamie theory of Article 1 Section 8 Clause 17 to Megyn Kelley on Fox before his arrest, and he floated it again in his surrender speech from jail.
Call it Bag of Dicks v Bureau of Land Management, but I donât think the media have begun to scratch the surface of the monkey wrench represented by Scaliaâs death.
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Well it is this republican lead congressâs tradition to not do anything on things Obama ask for.
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He could. It would be a pretty rough one. We already have the one for the need for 60 votes that probably would not happen anyway. This one would take general obstruction to the next level. Say in a situation where the GOP wins the WH but the Dems win the Senate back. Then what? Do they retaliate then? If they play nice than it is rewarding what was done. But it would still be the elections have consequences sort of montra and if it were a Ted Cruz there may be 8 guys on the Court for good. Given the guys he would keep picking.
This is a way to fire up the base for sure but in terms of politics it does not make a ton of sense to me. They could just go through the motions, not confirm whomever and say what they always do. The person is radical and make a big stink and so on and so forth. It would avoid this mess and keep a pretense of doing the right thing there. What they are doing is pretty much saying that the presidents power to appoint is really only there for 3 years out of the term.
Basically a Congressional encroachment of expressly stated presidential power.
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âthe chance to do soâ
The irony of that sentence fragment is palpable. Sounds like some sort of
opportunity arose.
The only opportunity they really have here is to prove their certified obstruction pedigree. This will cap every investigative article written by future historians, proving that 21st Century Republicans had reached a point where common democracy would not perpetuate their stranglehold on politics any longer, so they had no alternative but resisting the very act of governance, to extend their tenuous, teetering teadom one more destructive season.
Even if it cost us our democratic soul.
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The idea that Democrats somehow did a hit job on Bork is one of the great Orwellian rewrites of the journalistic narrative. They put the mans records and beliefs on the table and, back in the days when there were still sane Republicans, even some of them recoiled. The more, and the more deeply, you read what he wrote, the worse it got. Taking it out of context only made it better for him, not worse.
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âIt seems to me that itâs a real difference to say weâre not even going to consider a nomination,â Maltese said.
It wasnât just what they said, it was the way it became the VERY FIRST REPUBLICAN OFFICIAL RESPONSE after Scalia departed, the condolences werenât even underway before Mitch hit the media with his provocative obstructionRus response.
Seriously, a lot of us arenât surprised at all they plan to obstruct to the very end of Obamaâs Presidency, that seemed to be a given.
But the way they came out of the gate was mind boggling.
The fact they are so desperate about it, that they responded with such hostile intent before those old bones were even cold, that they circled their wagons even before the next morning news cycle, that they are now in full-on double-speak mode to turn their latest exception into a rule in the minds of their pliant lemmings, it all smacks of more desperation than I can fathom.
I know racism is at the core of some of it, but it looks more all the time as if thereâs some fundamental power pin that is perilously close to popping, and they are simply desperate to prevent that as long as possible⌠but they know it is coming.
What they are putting off is the future, because it promised a diverse and evolving America that they donât want to take part in, they want something they really never had. And their desperation to stop the clock and retrieve their delusions is more destructive than they are willing to imagine.
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When I read ANYthing the MSM writes, I feel like Hitlerâs dressing up a few prisoners in Polish Army uniforms to âattackâ the Wehrmacht (thereby sending hundreds of thousands of German troops across the border) is just a preview of 2016 MSM S.O.P.
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Agree with this. Each stage of the process gives the Senate Republicans an opportunity to trumpet their contempt and loathing for the black President - which is what their voters want from them. So stretch it out; let them give in to self-indulgence yet again. If their supporters turn out to be a national minority whose fault is that? And what happens to their rhetoric if lingering grief were to prompt Clarence Thomas to commit suttee?
As for Bork, the remainder of his career was proof of the observation that lack of power also tends to corrupt.
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can we call that the epitaph of the 114th?
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As I remember the story, Nixon promised Bork a seat on the Supreme Court for his part in the Saturday Night Massacre. (Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resigned rather than carry out NIxonâs order to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Bork, then Solicitor General, was sworn in as AG and promptly fired Cox.) However, Nixon left office with his tail between his legs before he could make good on his promise. So in nominating Bork to the Court, Reagan was fulfilling an old Nixon promise. Granted, Bork may have thought Nixon was acting within his authority by firing Cox, but the optics were bad â really bad.
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maybe McConnell realized right out of the funeral gate that it was the very ACT of nominating a series of supremely qualified and inconveniently diverse candidates, that would prove disastrous between now and election time?
A series of those quick rejections would systematically unmask the native prejudices that motivate them, and while it may not lose them any old white southerners, it isnât going to endear them to ANY of the future interest groups they need to simply survive. Those impending demographic factors are a tsunami still out to sea, but theyâre fully aware it is coming.
Seen from that perspective, it makes more sense, but still doesnât explain their total abandonment of standard âwait until the bodyâs coldâ decorum.
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Interesting how evangelicals and their supporters arenât seeing this as Godâs will. Guess because they donât like it, so it canât be.
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obstructionRus⌠can I coin that one?