Let’s not forget he wasn’t originally nominated for Chief Justice. Roberts was initially nominated to replace the retiring Sandra Day O’Connor as Associate Justice. When Rehnquist died GWB decided to take the straightforward approach of withdrawing his nomination for Associate Justice and nominating him for Chief Justice. It allowed the top position to be voted on about a man who was really a rock star in DC circles and had already started his approval process.
Which parliamentary systems other than Australia have the double dissolution? Canada and the U.K. don’t.
Except the dispute here isn’t between the houses of congress. It’s between the Senate and the President. Dissolving both houses of Congress would not resolve the dispute.
And, expanding the dissolution to require the President to run again, as well as both houses of Congress, would not necessarily resolve the issue.
Unlike a parliamentary system, where the executive is decided by the majority in Parliament, the President is elected separately from the Congress. So even if House, Senate and President were all involved in a triple dissolution, the voters could simply return the same deadlock by voting simultaneously for Senators who oppose the policy of the President, and for the President who opposes the policy of the Senators.
The dispute is an act of *personal *spite by two men who happen to hold the positions of Senate Majority Leader and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman. The only Constitutional issue is “What happens if officeholders refuse to do their jobs?”