Republican sedition and Supreme Court nominations

Republicans are preposterously assuming they can block any nomination President Obama puts forth to fill the US Surpreme Court vacancy created by the untimely death of Justice Antonin Scalia (1936-2016). This presumed political power exceeds the intentions of the authors of the US Constitution when they created three independent branches of government- the Executive, the Judicial and the Legislative branches. 

Each branch of government is separate and checks on the powers of each other. In other words, the US Constituton was written with the intention of preventing any one political party or governmental branch from controlling the nation. Except, the Republicans don't see it that way, anymore. Rather, the Republican party has been on a systematic process of dismantling the government they pretend to honor and, moreover, take an oath to protect.

Senator Mitch McConnell R-KY, didn't even wait until the family of Justic Scalia had acknowledged the departed man's death, before he leaped to the media with the outrageous announcement that President Obama should not nominate a replacement to fill the Supreme Court vacancy.  It's assumed, of course, that President Obama will nominate nominate a liberal and thereby ruin the Republicans' plan to dominate the court with right wing conservative justices.  

In fact, Senator McConnell should be censured for his mistatement about the judicial nomination to fill Scalia's seat.  What he said was clearly unconstitutional.  In fact, Article II of the US Constitution authorizes the President of the United States to make judicial appoinntments to fill court vacancies.  It's totally irresponsible for a US Senator to tell a President what to do, because doing so violates the separate but equal branches of government and therefore breeds the seeds of sedition, in my opinion.

Now Republicans who often seem to preach as though the US Constitution is a sequel to the Bible, are trying to rewrite what Justice Scaia would himself have upheld.  Indeed, without a doubt, the President is authorized to nominate a successor to the Surpeme Court. Even more important, Preisident Obama was elected to be our nation's leader by a margin of 5 million votes, thereby giving him the authority to make a Supreme Court nomination at any time during his presidency.  

Thankfully, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusettes, an academic politician, has politically humiliated Senator McConnell for his disrespectful leap to usurp the Executive decision by President Obama to nominate a successor to Justice Scalia.

Senator Elizabeth Warren D-MA

Senator Warren is reported in Politicususa.com
By Sarah Jones
After Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that he would lead Republicans in obstructing President Obama yet again, this time by leading his party to abdicate their Constitutional duties, (Wait!!!  Isn't this seditious behavior?) Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) reminded McConnell that President Obama’s will is the will of the people and that he won by five million votes.

Senator Warren said in a statement, “Senator McConnell is right that the American people should have a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice. In fact, they did – when President Obama won the 2012 election by five million votes.”

Then Warren proceeded to remind McConnell about that thing Republicans are always claiming to worship – the Constitution, specifically Article II, “Article II Section 2 of the Constitution says the President of the United States nominates justices to the Supreme Court, with the advice and consent of the Senate.”

Wait for it… “I can’t find a clause that says ‘…except when there’s a year left in the term of a Democratic President.'”

Warren reminded McConnell that Republicans took an oath just like Democrats did and if they fail to do their duty, their talk about loving the Constitution is empty, “Senate Republicans took an oath just like Senate Democrats did. Abandoning the duties they swore to uphold would threaten both the Constitution and our democracy itself. It would also prove that all the Republican talk about loving the Constitution is just that – empty talk.”

Senator Warren is absolutely correct. The idea that Republicans get to obstruct the power of the presidency invested in Obama by the people in not one but two elections is outrageous.

Republicans think that obstructing President Obama’s nominee is good politics and will help them in the 2016 election. 

However, 2016 was already set to be a tough year for Republicans in the Senate. Mitch McConnell must be suffering from Fox induced epistemic closure if he doesn’t see that these tactics will not sell in blue or moderate states.

Furthermore, if Republicans want to run against President Obama again....they have never come close to beating him...

The next time a Republican waves their pocket version of the Constitution around as they drone on about the debt as an excuse for why they have not shown up to work for weeks, someone ought to remind them that they can’t pick and choose what works for them from the Constitution, like they do from the Bible.

(In other words, for Republicans violate the specific instructions given to our governmental leaders as adopted in the US Constitution, when they take oaths to support the law, is sedition, in my opinion.).