If a gaffe is when a politician accidentally tells the truth, is this uttering from Sen. Jeff Flake a gaffe—or another piece of evidence of how far gone the Republican Party is? On Sunday’s Meet the Press, the Arizona Republican had this to say about confirming Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court:
I think Republicans are more than justified in waiting. That is following both principle and precedent. But the principle is to have the most conservative, qualified jurists that we can have on the Supreme Court, not that the people ought to decide before the next election. I've never held that position.
If we come to a point, I've said all along, where we're going to lose the election, or we lose the election in November, then we ought to approve him quickly. Because I'm certain that he'll be more conservative than a Hillary Clinton nomination comes January.
Flake personally may not be clinging to the “the people must decide because Barack Obama doesn’t get the full term the people elected him to” nonsense, but that’s the official word from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The people! Not the ones who voted in 2012, the ones who Republicans imagine will vote in 2016. Except … if the people decide on another Democratic president, screw ‘em. At that point, the GOP’s official “let the people decide” position is out the window.
Let’s repeat to be clear: Jeff Flake wants to keep a vacancy on the Supreme Court for damn near a year on the principle that if Republicans can block any Democratic nominee, they should. But if a Democrat’s conservative pick might be replaced by a Democrat’s more liberal pick, then confirm that first guy posthaste. Because principle! (Different principle than most other Republicans are citing. Same outcome.)
How did hard-hitting journalist Chuck Todd respond to this principled position?
All right. Jeff Flake, Republican senator from Arizona, I'm going to leave it there.
Bam! Pow! If Chuck Todd was on his high school newspaper, surely the faculty adviser of said newspaper is cringing in shame.
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