Proving that the principled, moderate Republican is now totally extinct, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has flip-flopped on whether or not the sitting president gets to pick Supreme Court justices. She's decided that, in this case anyway, no he should not. In a series of tweets Thursday evening, Murkowski reversed her earlier position that President Obama's eventual nominee "should get hearing." Not any more. And she's lying about it, too.
That precedent, that tradition, does not exist. As SCOTUSblog made abundantly clear: "The historical record does not reveal any instances since at least 1900 of the president failing to nominate and/or the Senate failing to confirm a nominee in a presidential election year because of the impending election." And since 1900, there have been "several nominations and confirmations of Justices during presidential election years."
RIP, GOP. You're all the party of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump now.