Harry Reid is not letting Republicans off the hook for their promise to stand in the way of any judge, no matter how qualified, President Obama might nominate to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. This is about-to-be-retired Harry Reid we’re talking about, so he’s not mincing words.
In a Washington Post op-ed, he writes that ”Republicans should not insult the American people’s intelligence by pretending there is historical precedent for what they are about to do. There is not.”
Of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s “rash statement” that no president should ever get to make such an appointment in an election year, Reid writes that:
If my Republican colleagues proceed down this reckless path, they should know that this act alone will define their time in the majority. Thinking otherwise is fantasy. If Republicans proceed, they will ensure that this Republican majority is remembered as the most nakedly partisan, obstructionist and irresponsible majority in history. All other impressions will be instantly and irretrievably swept away.
He points to villains and casts blame for this recklessness, rashness, naked partisanship, and irresponsibility:
My Republican Senate colleagues should know, too, that they will be unconditionally surrendering their party to hard-line presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Donald Trump. Behind closed doors, many of my colleagues complain about the direction their party has taken in recent years. But if they cross this Rubicon, they will be as culpable as Sen. Cruz or Trump themselves, having resigned any claim to leadership and enlisting as foot soldiers in a radical effort to obstruct and delegitimize the president at all costs.
In short: Guys, you can blame Cruz and Trump in private, but if you do this, it’s on you, and it’s not going to look good. And we’re not going to help you out by caving.