Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — the next in line behind Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to lead Democrats in the Senate — pushed back at Republicans who are using a 2007 speech he gave to justify their plan to block any nominee President Obama puts forward to succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Schumer said Republicans are taking his speech out of context and that comparing what Schumer said then to the situation now is “apples to oranges.”
“In short, Senator McConnell’s attempt to justify his unprecedented obstruction with my speech is completely misleading and patently false,” Schumer said in a post on Medium Tuesday.
In the speech, which Schumer gave to the left-leaning American Constitution Society, Schumer suggested Democrats didn’t vet Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito thoroughly enough when the two conservative justices went through the nomination process, and Democrats had been “duped” by promises by the justices that they would be fair. He condemned the right-ward direction the court went after they two conservatives joined.
It is in that context, Schumer said Tuesday, that he said Democrats could take a tougher line on President George W. Bush-appointees, but that he still believed — then and now — that every Supreme Court nominee deserved to go through the full process of hearings and vetting before an up-and-down vote on their merits.
“I believe in this case the President will nominate a mainstream candidate who can and should earn bipartisan support,” Schumer said. “But whether Republicans agree or not with my evaluation of whichever candidate the president puts forward, they have a constitutional obligation to hold hearings, conduct a full confirmation process, and vote on the nominee based on his or her merits. That’s what I said then, that’s what I believe now, and that’s what I hope happens in the months ahead.”
I’m not getting what the beef is. Seriously, the Republicans are attempting to use Schumer’s old remarks to delay, delay, delay? Nothing in Schumer’s remarks–at least, from what is printed here–is even relatable. These aren’t even straws for which they grasp–as there’s nothing there that even makes sense to attempt to use in this manner.
(Confounded Look on Face) Proceed, Republicans … please proceed.
Republicans are in full, unified disinformation mode now (what else is new?). This morning, NPR’s David Green interviewed Orrin Hatch who sumptuously lied about the history of confirmation of justices in a president’s final year in office. In stating that the last time this was allowed was in 1916, Hatch conveniently “forgot” about Kennedy’s confirmation by a Dem Senate in 1988 and Green, in pure NPR fashion, let the lie pass unchallenged.
These types of pronouncements-- push-backs–
need to be coming directly on the heels of the distortions by ®s.
And they need to be coming from the source–
the individuals whose comments are being used out of context-- to make the point.
Over and over. Keep pushing back (D)s.
jw1
Nom Nom Nom
Okay, sorry, just had to get that out of my system.
Do you think it’s remotely possible that when Mitt Romney ran against Barack Obama in 2012, he warned that a consequence of the election would be that the chosen President would have the power to appoint Supreme Court Justices? And after that warning, the voters re-elected Barack Obama? Tell me again why President Obama should be blocked from his nominee having a full and fair hearing and vote this year.