Here’s the problem: caving is bad for the base. Not caving is bad for moderates. But caving will also be bad with some moderates because of the huge deal they made about how they’re not going to cave.
In other words, they can look weak, or they can look stupid, and if they look weak then they will also look a bit stupid.
Obama is also pro-choice and pro-gun control. The Clintons invented Third-way centrism. I’m sure Hillary will be every bit the liberal that Obama is.
Gun owners and 2nd Amendment supporters unite. We must keep pressure on our duly elected representatives to prevent a judge like Merrick B. Garland from being appointed to the SCOTUS. Of course, no hearing is constitutionally required for Garland’s appointment.
Garland is an anti-2nd Amendment judge. Therefore, I don’t consider him to be qualified for the Supremes. The Bill of (Individual) Rights is a very important part of the U.S. Constitution and I expect Justices to uphold the U.S. Constitution, not rewrite it in their own image or to support their chosen political party.
*Back in 2007, Judge Garland voted to undo a D.C. Circuit court decision striking down one of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. The liberal District of Columbia government had passed a ban on individual handgun possession, which even prohibited guns kept in one’s own house for self-defense.
Snip
Garland thought all of these regulations were legal, which tells us two things. First, it tells us that he has a very liberal view of gun rights, since he apparently wanted to undo a key court victory protecting them. Second, it tells us that he’s willing to uphold executive actions that violate the rights of gun owners.*
Garland choses to ignore the will of Congress, and the people, when he judged that Congress didn’t know what it was talking about when Congress made it clear that firearm owner registrations would not be kept by the FBI.
*In 1993, Congress enacted the “Brady Bill,” while providing that the Brady waiting period would sunset in five years, to be replaced with the National Instant Check System (NICS) for all retail gun purchases. Although prior law and the 1993 law both forbade the federal government from using the NICS to register gun owners, Janet Reno and the FBI immediately began using the NICS for gun registration.
snip
Dissenting Judge David B. Sentelle, a Reagan appointee, opined that Congress was perfectly clear when stating it wanted the NICS records destroyed – and destroyed immediately, not six months later. “The Attorney General [Janet Reno]'s position,” Sentelle wrote, “strikes me as reminiscent of a petulant child pulling her sister’s hair. Her mother tells her, ‘Don’t pull the baby’s hair.’ The child says, ‘All right, Mama,’ but again pulls the infant’s hair. Her defense is, ‘Mama, you didn’t say I had to stop right now.’”*
http://www.davekopel.com/NRO/2000/Instant-Check-Permanent-Record.htm
Political language usage note that I was not aware of (but probably should have been): Apparently Democrats flip-flop, Republicans evolve.
It’s a subtle but important distinction. 
Anyway, the Republicans are cornered in more ways than one. On the question of the nominee, they either end up with the embarrassment of Trump or they make a spectacle of themselves with vicious infighting and a brokered convention, neither of which is going to give them either a presidential or downticket victory in November. The brighter ones at least should know they’re toast in November, which puts pressure on them to [del]flip-flop[/del] evolve their ridiculous position on blocking the President’s constitutional authority to nominate a Supreme Court justice. The insanity is on full display.
(post shortened)
Hooray for Obama.
Caving is better for the long term advancement of the party goals, which is never as important as winning the immediate cycle, but could be a tie breaker.
Those characters look like the Democrat doctors that Obama had dressed in lab coats to convince Democrats that they were actually doctors. 
Hey doorhinge, the National Review is wrong about Trump so maybe they are wrong about Garland too. Food for thought.
They look like intelligent adults. What’s your point?
Indeed. Don’t really understand where McConnell’s head is at. I agree with some posters here that there was an easy way out here for the “won’t confirm any Obama nominee on principle” senators, without appearing as though they are “caving”:
If those senators want to wait a bit to see how the GOP nomination shakes out, fine. If they just want to get on with it and put in the rear-view mirror, okay. But it seems to me like they had an easy way to save face and pander to their base.
Already addressed and debunked.
Notwithstanding your inane assertion that judges are bound to adhere to “the will of Congress” instead of acting as a check against their power, this has also already addressed and debunked.
This is kind of my feeling too, but it depends on what “winning” means for the Republicans. They want another Scalia, but they got a moderate (with a side of egg on face). It’s just the art of the possible playing out.
The language was chosen intentionally to mirror Obama’s utilization of the phrase.
But if you were a Republican senator, would Mitch McConnell allow you to?
According to the NYT, he’s in-line with the current SC “liberal bloc”. That doesn’t sound like a win for the Republicans.
Hell, they could have even spun it as a win: We forced the president’s hand and averted the nomination of a liberal justice. Hooray for us Republicans!
They have really backed themselves into a corner, and then filled the room with alligators and set the whole thing on fire.
Fortunately for the nation, doorhinge’s approval is not among the constitutional qualifications.
Of the two items identified as anti-gun, the NRA vs. Reno case doesn’t seem persuasive. This was essentially a Chevron analysis and the reasoning in the majority opinion seems sound to me. I’d have preferred the decision go the other way, but the opinion itself could have been written by Scalia.
The vote to re-hear Parker en banc is more damning. Merrick wouldn’t be my pick, but I’m not sure if there is a more likely alternative that would be.
