Well, the Republicans in the Senate must think we’re pretty stupid. Nowhere in the Constitution (which they say they value more than the Democrats do) does it state that the President gets to appoint Supreme Court nominees only 3 of his 4 years in office. It’s not implied anywhere in the document that a contentious election year precludes a SCOTUS appointment. And yet, the GOP keeps spouting this garbage:
"We believe the American people need to decide who is going to make this appointment rather than a lame-duck president," Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (Texas) told reporters Tuesday after a special meeting of the committee.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said members of the panel reached a "consensus" that there should not be hearings or a vote on President Obama's nominee.
"My decision is that I don't think we should have a hearing. We should let the next president pick the Supreme Court justice," he said after emerging from a meeting in Senate Majority LeaderMitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) office.
...
“We wish to inform you of our intention to exercise our constitutional authority to withhold consent on any nominee to the Supreme Court submitted by this president to fill Justice Scalia’s vacancy,” they wrote.
As has been pointed out dozens of times, the current President has almost a full year left of presidenting, and many SCOTUS appointments have been confirmed in election years. It’s time for the media to start asking a simple followup question:
Why do the 65,915,796 votes cast to re-elect the president in 2012 not count?
The people have already had a say about this SCOTUS vacancy, and they resoundingly voted for the president to be able to make Supreme Court appointments until January 20, 2017. Why do the Republicans get to ignore my 2012 vote?