Open Letter to my Senators
To Senators Cochran and Wicker:
A warning sirs - do not be hypocrites like your Republican senatorial colleagues. Out of curiosity, have they have changed 'advise and consent' to 'advise and obstruct?
It seems that as Supreme Court Justice Scalia has passed away and the President of the United States must nominate a new justice, your Senate leadership has gone fully insane. Senators Cruz (ersatz Speaker of the House of Representatives), McConnell (Senate Majority Leader), and Grassley (Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee) have made statements to the effect that President Obama will not be allowed to nominate a new justice to the Supreme Court.
Senator Cruz said on Sunday, 2/14/2016, We should not allow a lame-duck president to essentially capture the Supreme Court in the waning months of his presidency. As a former Supreme Court clerk and a current member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, shouldnt he know what the Constitution says? As a strict constitutional constructionist who rants about the sanctity of the Constitutional, shouldnt he know better?
Senator Mitch McConnell, in 2005, defended the absolute right of a sitting president to nominate judges by saying, "The Constitution of the United States is at stake. Article II, Section 2 clearly provides that the President, and the President alone, nominates judges. That statement was made during the presidency of George W. Bush. Yet, this past Sunday, February 14, 2016, Senator McConnell said, The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president." The American people spoke loudly and clearly in 2012 by re-electing President Obama. And, if Im not mistaken, the presidents term of office is still four years?
Likewise, Senator Grassley stated on 2/13/2016, It has been standard practice over the last 80 years to not confirm Supreme Court nominees during a presidential election year. But, Senator Grassley voted with all his Republican colleagues 97-0 in February of 1988 to confirm Justice Kennedy, nominated by President Reagan.
Liars or hypocrites or idiots or insane - which is it?
Yes, the black guy is going to be the president until January 20th, 2017. Unless, you still consider him to be 3/5ths of a man. Then, now Vice-President Biden should be, according to you, elevated to President Biden and in which case, he shall nominate someone to be a justice of the Supreme Court. If you consider this to be racial, it is. This must be stated boldly and denied by you as boldly because the obstruction to the Constitution of the United States of America is either racial or political, not logical. The shame is on you. For the Senate to shut down the confirmation process on these spurious grounds would be disastrous for the court and the country.