Mitch McConnell, Chuck Grassley, and the Senate Republicans would like you to believe precedent requires them to not even give a hearing to anyone President Obama nominates to take the Supreme Court seat of Antonin Scalia. Well, last weekend a prominent Republican congressman admitted what we already knew–it has nothing to do with precedent and everything to do with politics.
This year’s edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference–also known as Wingnutpalooza–wrapped up on Sunday. An undercover reporter for Democracy Partners/Americans United for Change managed to collar Congressman Steve King of Iowa and ask him his thoughts on the Supreme Court flap. His home state’s Senator, Grassley, is helping lead the tantrum. Watch here.
King is one of the most conservative members of the House, and a darling of the tea party movement. So it should come as no surprise that he fully supports the Senate Republicans’ obstructionism.
What came as a surprise, though, was how brutally honest he was about it. He declared that he fully supported Grassley’s refusal to hold hearings “as long as he’s blocking an Obama appointment.” He admitted that “all kinds of constitutional arguments” will be made as this plays out. But at the end of the day, King said, “we should understand that it’s a political argument”–one that will only get more heated as the election looms. He believes that if Grassley can bottle up a nomination until November, “it will be clear that it’s not going to happen until the next president makes that appointment.”
So there you have it. All this talk about protecting a non-existent precedent that no Supreme Court nominations should even be considered by the Senate in an election year is a bunch of hot air. It’s all about making sure Obama isn’t the one making the appointment–and that a Republican president is the one making the appointment.
If that’s the case, McConnell, Grassley, and friends are likely to end up dead losers. All indications are that Donald Trump is well on his way to the Republican nomination. Poll after poll indicates that Trump will get destroyed in the general election short of a complete collapse by the Democrats. Moreover, poll after poll shows that the Republicans could very well lose the Senate if they keep up this nonsense.
We already knew that McConnell and Grassley were blowing smoke when they claimed they were just upholding precedent. We just didn’t expect one of their fellow Republicans to admit they were blowing smoke.
