GOP leaders show hypocrisy
As Republican members of the United States Senate unite to fight any nominee President Obama might name to replace Justice Antonin Scalia following his sudden passing, their hypocrisy is showing.
What reasonable person believes that if the shoe were on the other foot, if a Republican lame duck president had the opportunity to nominate a new justice, that members of the GOP would be urging him not to do so?
The only Republican presidential nominee who passed “the smell test” in this matter was Jeb Bush, who acknowledged the right of President Obama to name a candidate, honestly anticipating what he would do as president if he faced the same situation.
The polarization of Congress was on full display when it inflicted a six-month delay in approving non-ideological, non-controversial, highly qualified Attorney General Loretta Lynch. As Donald Trump suggested in his Feb. 13 debate appearance, the party will now greet an Obama Supreme Court nominee with “delay, delay, delay,” throwing a wrench into the gears of government and increasing, if it is possible, the acrimony and animosity that exists between those on opposite sides of the aisle.
Despite having just eleven months left in his term, President Obama will not roll over and play dead. He will name some poor soul to the Supreme Court who will be left to twist in the wind as the parties go at each other’s throats and in the meantime, we can anticipate Supreme Court decisions on important issues that result in 4-4 stalemates. We are in for a bruising end to the Obama era which is not healthy for our system of governance nor for our nation.
Oren M. Spiegler
Upper Saint Clair