One of the senators I pointed to yesterday, New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, has come out in opposition to any Obama appointment to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court as reported by Politico:
New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican from a state that supported President Obama, announced on Sunday evening that she opposes confirmation of a new Supreme Court nominee before the election.
The move comes as Ayotte has sought to build a pragmatic profile in New Hampshire against her opponent, Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan. But Ayotte is choosing to back Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s blockade on picking a replacement for deceased Justice Antonin Scalia.
Offhand I’d say she is interpreting New Hampshire’s mood as expressed by the New Hampshire primaries last week as broadly anti-incumbent.
You gotta love Republicans: they just can’t avoid self-inflicted wounds. Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton can put this obstructionism at the top of the agenda any time they like, again and again, from now till November. The GOP arguments are transparent nonsense, they won’t fly with anyone outside the base.
Citizens United, abortion, gay rights, oh my God, any reasonably bright Democratic hack could figure out how to torture the GOP candidates with this. We’ll present this as the GOP establishment agreeing with the GOP insurgents that obstruction is justified by a desperate desire to protect big money in politics, the big banks, polluters, and fetus-wavers. And the beauty is that there’s nothing Republicans can do to stop us ramming this down their throats every ten minutes for the next 9 months. All in the guise of being outraged at the irresponsibility of it.
Best election ever.
Please, oh please: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/15/the-gop-s-worst-nightmare-scotus-nominee.html
I see a campaign commercial coming.
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/02/15/video-schumer-insists-that-lame-duck-president-should-not-get-supreme-court-pick/
Each party tends to exploit events when it serves their own political purposes. In 1960 and again, as depicted in Schumer’s stance 18 months before the expiration of GWB’s term in office, the rhetoric see-saws around — not dependent on any general display of principle, but rather on what POV may advantage a party’s power. In essence the Republicans are only mimicking what dems have done in the past during similar scenarios involving judicial vacancies.
Consequently, the righteous condemnation by dems (such as exemplified in Reynolds post), towards their contemporary Republican nemesis, is almost comical, if it were not so pathetically full of hypocritical nonsense. In fact that whole inflammatory yardage about “big money in politics, the big banks, polluters, and fetus-wavers,” can aptly be applied to his own party’s leaders and administrative policies. Even when it comes to “polluters,” just look at the Federal EPA’s role in the Colorado mine debacle and the recent water pollution issues in Flint Michigan, which dems are desperately trying to roll out ownership onto the Governor, rather than denoting a wider failure involving both local and federal mishandling in protecting the water supply.
1) Schumer was just talking, which is cheap. We don’t know what he would have really done.
2) I would say that what Ayotte is really doing is making sure she does not face major opposition in her next primary.
” In essence the Republicans are only mimicking what dems have done in the past during similar scenarios involving judicial vacancies.”
No. As SCOTUSblog documented, since 1900 when a President has nominated judges in an election year they have gotten a vote and gotten confirmed, even if it took a couple of tries.
Steve
Steve:
When you’re a Republican rules, laws, social norms, are all for other people. IOKIYAR. Their party is now led by a foul-mouthed insult comic and reality TV star who thinks George W. Bush allowed 911 to happen, used to favor all abortions, is pro gay rights, against big banks, favors a huge increase in the police state with mass round-ups, apparently wants to make common cause with Russia in re-installing Assad, and actually knows less about the Bible than the average atheist.
This from the party of supposedly deep beliefs and traditional morality.
Reynolds, who advocated for the assassination of the President and any other Republican back in 2006, is of course from the party that believes in nothing but itself.
As for the threat of holding up the nomination: Elections have consequences. I seem to have heard that somewhere from someone.
Schumer was just talking, which is cheap. We don’t know what he would have really done.
Yeah, despite Schumer’s great hope, none of the right people on the Supreme Court died. That was terribly disappointing, I’m sure, but now you guys can party all year long. Nothing like the death of a Republican to give you guys a hard on.
That’s nice snark, and may even make you feel better about yourself, Michael, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. The fact is the Democrats have put up a crazy man whose primary pitch is free beer for all, and the other one of the most miserable pieces of filth on earth, and a crook to boot. Great.
The real question is how in the world can a goon like Trump resonate like he has. The answer is simple. People recognize government and the pols who administer it don’t work worth a damn anymore. It’s broken. The inside baseball machinations of approving a Supreme Court justice will resonate with the public about as much a scintillating game of cricket.
Personally, I think a lot depends on who the President nominates. I think if he’s politically smart he’d nominate a centrist or maybe even someone right of center (Of course, doing that might hurt his base, but he can always argue to them that another Kennedy is better than another Scalia). A centrist nomination would make the political situation for the GoP a lot more difficult IMO. If he nominates someone from the left then I think obstruction will, on balance, help the GoP a lot more than it will hurt.
Andy, all he has to do is nominate someone spotless. Then he can beat the Republican Senate with it again and again. There is no rational argument for this obstruction, it is profoundly un-American, and everyone outside the hardcore GOP base will get it.
I hope everyone this time will manage to keep the time line straight. The GOP announced their obstruction before Mr. Obama even spoke, and while Scalia’s body was still cooling. So let’s have no more of that rewriting of history the way Republicans have tried to do with Mr. Bush’s disastrous tenure, and government shutdowns, and the whole myth of ‘both sides do it.’
“There is no rational argument for this obstruction, it is profoundly un-American, and everyone outside the hardcore GOP base will get it.”
Obstruction of nominees is, unfortunately, not uncommon. It’s gone on for years with circuit court justices so I don’t share your view that this will be a big deal politically outside of each party’s respective base.
It will also be interesting to see who would accept a nomination given the GoP’s poison pill. The confirmation process is already pretty brutal on most nominees, why would someone want to subject themselves to that if their actual chances of confirmation are very low?
Andy:
There will be a nominee. At that point, everything changes, because it’s no longer an abstract, “Should Obama get the chance to…” and becomes a more specific, “Should X be denied.”
If Democrats are smart (and the jury is out on that) they will tie this obstructionism to Citizens United. Paint it as the GOP establishment desperate to keep power in the hands of billionaires. And of course beat on the utter illogic of the GOP position. On top of the flood of crazy and stupid flowing from the GOP already, it adds to the sense that Republicans have gone mad, cannot be trusted even to follow the Constitution they claim to revere.
If only we had an eloquent spokesman who could command public attention any time he wants it. Say, from the Oval office.
Both sides are being predictably partisan, but McConnell was stupid to be honest about it.
Odds of Obama nominating a white male are 0%, but because he won’t announce that he is purposefully choosing someone based on maximizing bad optics for GOP when they reject his choice, he won’t get any backlash for playing politics.
This strikes me as pretty good analysis. I don’t think the GoP is in a weak position politically on this but there’s a lot left to play out. We’re only seeing the opening moves.