What kind of Supreme Court nominee will Obama select? [With Comment by John]

[Valin]

Power Line:

Paul Mirengoff

February 13, 2016

 

I think that President Obama’s nominee to replace Justice Scalia will be dead on arrival at the Senate, regardless of whom Obama selects. I suspect that Obama will reach the same conclusion.

 

If so, Obama will select the person whose rejection will provide Democrats with the most political ammunition.

 

Most likely, this means Obama will select an African-American female. That way, when the Senate refuses even to bring the nomination to a vote, the Democratic presidential nominee and Democrats running for Congress can rally African-American voters while also complaining that the GOP is waging war on women.

 

Political calculation also militates in favor of nominating someone whose leftism isn’t obvious. That way, Republicans won’t easily be able to answer charges of racism and sexism by pointing out that the nominee is “outside the mainstream.”

 

(Snip)

 

JOHN adds: I think this is exactly right, which is why I worry about the politics of shelving the nomination. Maybe I’m wrong–those who have gotten themselves elected to the Senate presumably are better judges–but I see the politics of this scenario playing out poorly for the GOP. That is why I am inclined to think that the nominee should be given a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and then be voted down. The key here is to use the hearing to commit the nominee to a radical position, and the one that springs to mind is the Democrats’ advocacy of the constitutionality of book and movie banning, to which any nominee will be committed.

[Draggingtree]

February 14, 2016

Dems in Senate passed a resolution in1960 against election year Supreme Court appointments

By Thomas Lifson

 

Read it and weep, Democrats. The shoe is on the other foot. David Bernstein at the Washington Post’s Volokh Conspiracy blog:

 

Thanks to a VC commenter, I discovered that in August 1960, the Democrat-controlled Senate passed a resolution, S.RES. 334

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/02/dems_in_senate_passed_a_resolution_in1960_against_election_year_supreme_court_appointments.html

[Draggingtree]

President Obama On Filibustering Alito: That Was Different!

Filed under: General — Dana @ 5:15 pm

[guest post by Dana]

 

Of course it was. Is anyone surprised?

 

President Obama responded to a question today about whether his decision as a senator to filibuster Alito weakens his current request that the GOP allow his nominee to go through. In typical Obama-fashion, the president embarrassingly claimed that it wasn’t fair to compare the two:

 

“I think what’s fair to say is that how judicial nominations have evolved over time is not historically the fault of any single party,” he told reporters in California. “This has become just one more extension of politics.”

 

“And, there are times where folks are in the Senate, and they’re thinking… is this going to cause me problems in a primary, is this going to cause me problems with supporters of mine, and so people take strategic decisions,” he said.

 

“But, what is also true is, Justice Alito is on the bench right now. I think that, historically, if you look at it, regardless of what votes particular senators have taken, there’s been a basic consensus, a basic understanding, that the Supreme Court’s different. http://patterico.com/2016/02/16/president-obama-on-filibustering-alito-that-was-different/