In today's
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Charles E. Grassley showed that congressional Republicans live in a bubble. They argued for a delay in appointing a Supreme Court justice, justifying their stance by referencing the 2014 election: “It is today the American people, rather than a lame-duck president whose priorities and policies they just rejected in the most-recent national election, who should be afforded the opportunity to replace Justice Scalia.”
I don’t recall any candidate running for a national office in 2014. The most consequential elections in 2014 were for senators, representatives and governors. The most recent election in which someone was running for a national office was in 2012, an election in which President Obama trounced his competition. The people spoke, and they spoke loudly. While people can make national statements with their votes in statewide elections, Mr. McConnell and Mr. Grassley neglected to mention that voter turnout in 2014 was the lowest in 70 years, at 36 percent, whereas turnout in the 2012 election was 58 percent. Which election gets closer to a national endorsement or rejection of Mr. Obama’s policies?
The question of whether Americans should get a chance to weigh in on a Supreme Court nominee was already answered, and overwhelmingly so, in 2012.
Doug Parsons, Takoma ParkSuch are the b.s. "arguments" being mustered by Republicans like Sen. Mitch "Missy" McConnell to justify delaying President Obama a Supreme Court appointment. It's time to change course for a Court that's had a conservative Republican majority since 1971 and, given Republican obstructionism, the 2016 election (Presidential and Senate) may be the last, best opportunity for a long time for progressives to get that done.
UPDATE: One Fly directs us in his comment to a blog post containing a rather ironic quote from the writings of one Mitch McConnell circa 1970. Seems he's on the same page as St. Ronnie of Hollywood. LOL.
