Hatch was on Morning Edition.
The interviewer was so amazingly differential to him that it was disgusting.
(Breathlessly) "So you mean there's a chance that he'll be approved after November?"
His answers were so slimy and (it seemed to me) he knew it.
The optics of the GOP's position are horrible. I hope they get beat about the head for the next few months and then finally capitulate.
1) Garland couldn't be better qualified.
2) Garland has shown that he has the judgement to be a great judge. (None of his decisions on the DC Circuit have been granted cert by the SCOTUS.)
3) He was effusively praised by GOP Senators in public.
4) He was privately recommended to Obama by Hatch and others as someone who would easily gain approval by the Senate.
As much as they hate Obama, he's the President. He has the responsibility to chose a SCOTUS justice. He's done so. The GOP would be thrilled if Donnie or Hillary were to have picked Garland.
Obama isn't going to be on the SCOTUS. Garland is.
Them throwing up "process" and the snippets of the "Biden Rule" speech from 1992 is just an attempt to throw more mud on a Democratic President (a AA one too, of course). Biden's speech was about a President convincing a justice to resign so he could be replaced in an election year. And later on he says that if the President consults with the Senate or moderates his pick to compromise when the government is split, then he would be happy to consider the nomination just as Kennedy and Souter were considered. (Watch the whole thing.)
Biden saying the Senate could throw up roadblocks to a President convincing SCOTUS justices to resign so s/he could try to pack the court in an election year seems to me to be an appropriate shot-across-the-bow. That's not the situation here and McConnell and Grassley and Hatch know it.
It's infuriating. I hope the GOP pays a huge price for this, but they're not going to be punished by NPR if this morning is any indication.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Breathlessly) "So you mean there's a chance that he'll be approved after November?"
His answers were so slimy and (it seemed to me) he knew it.
The optics of the GOP's position are horrible. I hope they get beat about the head for the next few months and then finally capitulate.
1) Garland couldn't be better qualified.
2) Garland has shown that he has the judgement to be a great judge. (None of his decisions on the DC Circuit have been granted cert by the SCOTUS.)
3) He was effusively praised by GOP Senators in public.
4) He was privately recommended to Obama by Hatch and others as someone who would easily gain approval by the Senate.
As much as they hate Obama, he's the President. He has the responsibility to chose a SCOTUS justice. He's done so. The GOP would be thrilled if Donnie or Hillary were to have picked Garland.
Obama isn't going to be on the SCOTUS. Garland is.
Them throwing up "process" and the snippets of the "Biden Rule" speech from 1992 is just an attempt to throw more mud on a Democratic President (a AA one too, of course). Biden's speech was about a President convincing a justice to resign so he could be replaced in an election year. And later on he says that if the President consults with the Senate or moderates his pick to compromise when the government is split, then he would be happy to consider the nomination just as Kennedy and Souter were considered. (Watch the whole thing.)
Biden saying the Senate could throw up roadblocks to a President convincing SCOTUS justices to resign so s/he could try to pack the court in an election year seems to me to be an appropriate shot-across-the-bow. That's not the situation here and McConnell and Grassley and Hatch know it.
It's infuriating. I hope the GOP pays a huge price for this, but they're not going to be punished by NPR if this morning is any indication.
Cheers,
Scott.
