No sooner had Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia been pronounced dead than the carping on the right began, and it all sounded the same: How dare President Obama even consider nominating a replacement for Scalia in the last year of his term in office!
Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader and resident Senate turtle, posted this bit of crap on Facebook:
“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”
The American people do have a voice in the selection, Senator McConnell. They elected Barack Obama twice! And they elected him to two terms of four years each. His second term is not yet up, so he is Constitutionally mandated to name a replacement.
But the best response I’ve heard to McConnell’s ignorant bluster came from Senator Elizabeth Warren, who posted this on Twitter:
“Senator McConnell is right that the American people should have a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice. In fact, they did — when President Obama won the 2012 election by five million votes. Article II Section 2 of the Constitution says the president of the United States nominates justices to the Supreme Court, with the advice and consent of the Senate. I can’t find a clause that says ‘…except when there’s a year left in the term of a Democratic president.
“The Senate GOP took an oath just like Democrats did. Abandoning the duties they swore to uphold threatens the Constitution & our democracy. Abandoning their Senate duties would also prove that all the Republican talk about loving the Constitution is just that – empty talk.”
Boom! Perfect! Thank you, Senator Warren, for saying what we were all thinking!
And as for McConnell, he can take his turtle self back to whatever swamp he resides in and shut the hell up until he learns what it means to be a true public servant.
Now com out in support of Bernie Sanders Ms. Warren! we need you and we need your courageous person to stand behind Senator Sanders at a time on the DNC just unlocked the flood gates to lobbyists being able to contribute to HRC’s campaign as they would never support anyone but others like themselves who understand the concept “scratch my back and I will yours”
We cannot waste an more time. We need you now, we need you on the campaign trail! PLEASE!