It's Thursday, September 22, and Day 221 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell decided no nominee would get any Senate attention: No meetings, no hearings, no votes. It's also Day 190 since Merrick Garland was nominated by President Obama to fill that vacancy.
What's the Senate doing today? Being as obnoxious as possible. The big offense perpetrated by Mitch McConnell today was his deliberate effort to screw over Flint, Michigan. That's the venal part of the day. The stupid started even before that, right after the Senate was gaveled in and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) came to the floor to try to leapfrog his very critical and controversial election-year legislation to prevent animal cruelty onto the floor, without hearings. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, had reached his limit.
He blocked Toomey's request, saying that Democrats are "happy to consider legislation, all kinds of legislation, but to pick and choose what they're going to do, leaving volumes of work undone here in the Senate ... is something that's incredulous." And then he lost his composure in a way you rarely see from Reid (watch below). He usually delivers his daggers in a quiet, measured way, but this morning was just too much for him.
I also have some concern as do the American people that senators, like my friend from Pennsylvania, have helped block a simple hearing and a vote on a man who is a consensus nominee to be a Supreme Court justice is wrong. […]
The Supreme Court being short one member has stopped work from being done for the good of this country, important cases that should have been determined haven't been determined. Now they have to go on with whatever the lower courts say. That's not our system of justice. So I hope everyone understands that it would be extremely fair and important to have a hearing and a vote on Merrick Garland. I can't understand the lack of courage of my Republican friends like the guy that just left here, the senator from Pennsylvania.
You don't like Merrick Garland? Vote against him. Vote against him. But don't be blocking him. For the longest time in the history of America, a supreme court justice has been stopped, stopped from even having a hearing. It's never ever happened before, never in the history of this country.
Reid is clearly reaching his limit on Republican nonsense, and for good reason. The government runs out of funding in eight days. The Supreme Court is going to begin a new session next week with just eight members. And Republicans are playing politics.
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