Why should they wait when the Republicans have proudly announced their intentions?
They deserve to get slagged and then some, for being so completely obnoxious. And for using the rules of government in ways never intended, not just to reach partisan objectives but to render the government unable to act.
Shame on them. And everyone who thinks so should be saying so. Loudly and often!
Senate Republicans are too pussy to even consider this. The Tea Party base has them so scared, they can’t afford to capitulate, not after announcing they absolutely, positively won’t hold hearings. Their base already doesn’t trust them because they say one thing and do another. If Obama gets his nominee confirmed, their voters’ hair will spontaneously combust. The Republican pussies haven’t got the stones to risk that.
The leaders of the GOP have said they will not even consider anyone, at all, no way, no how.
Nothing wrong with “Democrat Party”. Look at the difference between “Shrubya” and a simple slight shortening of Democratic which still has the same meaning.
Tea partiers vs tea baggers is derisive. “Democrat Party” may indeed be *used * derisively but in fact it is not.
And no politician has ever lied or had to go back on his bluff, so we know they are speaking the truth!
Actually, the use of the term “Democrat Party” was actively promoted by Newt Gingrich and Frank Luntz in the 1990s because testing showed that people, for some reason people respond more negatively to the term “Democrat Party.” Its use by conservative organization is not a coincidence.
Happy I could fight that ignorance for you!
Has it ever happened that a party has managed to keep a SC seat vacant thru a presidential election? I can imagine it may have happened with some lower-level appointments.
This isn’t a GAME! This is about the FUTURE of AMERICAN FREEDOM!
-like that, basically
It goes back a bit farther than that, even. Wikipedia has a good article on the “Democrat Party” epithet.
Like I said, as a non-TeaBagging Pub that scenario #1 was my hope and #3 was my fear. For a while the philosophy of the Pubs has been to push out any moderate. Not only John Boehner for daring to compromise but rank and file voters that are radicals believing the Constitution should run this country not the Bible.
Here is the gamble, what if the Dems take the Senate in 2016 (allowing for a 50/50 split and a Dem VP). Then the Pubs need to confirm whomever Obama gives them.
Like I said, as a non-TeaBagging Pub that scenario #1 was my hope and #3 was my fear. For a while the philosophy of the Pubs has been to push out any moderate. Not only John Boehner for daring to compromise but rank and file voters that are radicals believing the Constitution should run this country not the Bible.
Here is the gamble, what if the Dems take the Senate in 2016 (allowing for a 50/50 split and a Dem VP). Then the Pubs need to confirm whomever Obama gives them.
Huh…I didn’t know that. I guess ignorance fought. What about shortening it to ‘Dems’? I do that simply to spare my meager typing skills, just like ‘Pubs’.
Assuming that’s true, then stealing it from them makes it so much sweeter.
Of course! When a group of people starts using an epithet against them, suddenly it’s no longer disrespectful! Why didn’t I think of that?*
*And why hasn’t it worked for every other epithet and slur over the last several decades?
The WH is trolling the Senate Pubs with the notion of nominating a Republican.
I certainly hope that president of the United States wouldn’t “troll” the Senate as part of the SCOTUS nomination process. Do you really thing that’s what he’s doing?
It’s not ‘trolling’ exactly, because there’s a point to it all. The point is to float Sandoval out there to make the Republicans look irresponsible and unreasonable when they reject him. In public. During an election year. Sandoval’s being Hispanic is also a nice touch.
Sandoval hasn’t been formally asked and is not openly being pursued for anything. Reid talked to him about it, and - oh let me just quote this WaPo article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/02/24/brian-sandoval-republican-governor-of-nevada-is-being-vetted-for-supreme-court-vacancy/
So Sandoval hasn’t heard from anyone at the Whitehouse, but he told Reid (who has nothing to do with the search) that he’d be down with being vetted, and now Reid has mentioned his name to the press as someone who is very good, but not quite progressive enough, really, but maybe Reid (who is really not part of this process) will see what he can do.
So, yeah. Totally game playing. OTOH, the Republicans took the bait, sooo, fair play to the Democrats. Hey - why should they be the only ones not playing politics with this nomination?
That’s politics.
Playing politics is one thing. Trolling is another.
I voted for Obama twice, even though I am not supportive of the types of SCOTUS justices he would nominate. But if he wants to blow his chances and nominate someone who isn’t going to adhere to his judicial philosophy, that’s fine with me. I wouldn’t respect him much for doing it, but that’s a different issue.
Well, again, Sandoval hasn’t been approached by Obama or anyone from the Whitehouse. This is Harry Reid, talking. (Reid, otoh, has undoubtedly been approached by the Whitehouse to just casually mention Sandoval’s name.)
The object was to get McConnell stonewalling on the record - they won’t even consider a moderate Republican governor - and it worked.
Very true. The interesting thing is that McConnell has said the no-hearing thing repeatedly, recently with some added embellishment like “How often do I have to keep saying it?”. Perhaps part of an interesting strategy. Obama finds the most conservative candidate he can stomach, intending to make political hay when he doesn’t even get a hearing. McConnell and the boys “change their minds”, hold the hearing, and confirm said conservative. Bam! Mission accomplished!
Doing anything else would seem risky. There are 34 Senate seats up for grabs in November, of which 24 are Republicans. The Senate makeup could change in a bad way for the GOP, plus they have a clown as their presidential front-runner. If they think they’re going to have free rein over a nominee next year, they may be in for a shock.