The right wing will never allow the Senate to confirm a justice nominated by President Obama
by digby
There seems to be some concern among progressives (including some right here on the blog) that President Obama is going to finance his retirement by selling a Supreme Court seat to the highest corporate bidder with the nomination of a sell-out whore to Big Oil or Wall Street or some other corporate interest.
I have no idea about any of that. What I do know is that even if he wants to do it he will not get this corrupt shill confirmed because the Republicans, for some reason, are sure they won't be satisfied with whatever dishonest tool of corporate America this president will put forward and will never allow him or her to be confirmed:
Conservative leaders are sending a blunt message to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: The Supreme Court is more important than your majority.
McConnell’s (R-Ky.) top priority since becoming majority leader last year has been to put his colleagues in a strong position to win reelection, in part by showing that Republicans can govern.
But bottling up President Obama’s nominee to replace the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia could bring the work of the chamber to a screeching halt if Democrats choose to retaliate.
Taking action on a Supreme Court nominee — even through the Judiciary Committee — when Obama has less than a year left in his term would be a cardinal sin, conservative activists say.
They argue the ideological balance of the court is so important that it’s not worth playing political games to take the pressure off vulnerable Republican incumbents.
“I would rank having a conservative justice as more important than having the majority in the Senate,” said David Bozell, president of For America, a conservative advocacy group. “God knows this Republican majority in the Senate hasn’t done much anyway for conservatism, period."
“If you look at some of the conservative movement’s successes, it’s in large part due to the court doing some decent things and making some good decisions,” he added.
Two of the biggest court decisions in recent years, the District of Columbia v. Heller and Citizens United v. FEC, did far more to lift restrictions on gun ownership and political spending by outside groups — two conservative priorities — than anything passed by Republicans in Congress.
“The Senate isn’t as important on a great number of issues as the Supreme Court. The Senate is not going to determine whether or not we have Second Amendment rights, the Supreme Court is. The Senate is not going to determine marriage, the Supreme Court did. The Supreme Court, not the Senate, determined abortion,” said Mike Farris, chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association.
“The issues that are of great concern to the conservative movement have all been decided by the Supreme Court,” he added.
Honestly, I think everyone can relax about this. The next president will decide the balance of the court.
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