Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) and former Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) teamed up on a Time op-ed published Friday urging the Senate to move forward with hearings for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.
“Leaving the current blockade in place could leave a seat on the Court vacant for the remainder of this term and perhaps the next as well, which could leave major cases in limbo until 2018,” the pair wrote. “That is simply not acceptable. We cannot let today’s crisis of leadership turn into a full-blown constitutional crisis.”
Without a ninth justice, Huntsman and Lieberman note, split 4-4 Supreme Court decisions allow federal laws to be enforced differently in different states.
“It’s simply about making sure our government, including the highest court in the land, can actually function,” they wrote of holding a vote for the nominee.
Leading Republican officials, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA), have insisted that they will not hold hearings on any Obama nominee to succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia because it is an election year.
As Lieberman and Huntsman point out, many Republicans, including Grassley, have previously praised Garland as a moderate who could overcome partisan divisions if nominated to the Supreme Court. The refusal to meet with or consider Garland, they write, proves that Obama’s nominee is being used as a partisan bargaining chip by Republican senators.
Huntsman and Lieberman serve as co-chairs of No Labels, a Washington, DC-based organization aimed at ending bipartisan brinkmanship in the federal government.
Thank goodness. I don’t think I could have gotten through the weekend without knowing what these two washed-up has-been asswipes thought about this subject.
I am so relieved to find out what Joe Lieberman, traitor to the Democrat cause thinks.
I have great respect for Jon Huntsman, though.
I can’t even imagine how clammy that handshake must have been. And it’s amazing that Lieberman can STILL cause so much revulsion in me after all this time. Disgust springs eternal, I suppose.
“ending bipartisan brinkmanship”
FALSE EQUIVALENCE
Sadly, I don’t think that is what they would have said if the nominee were someone younger and considered to be substantially liberal.