Knockout: Why Obama Wants a Supreme Court Fight and How Republicans Blew It Before It Starts

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Spandan Chakrabarti | February 14, 2016

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The funny part is that the President doesn't even have to nominate a consensus candidate like Srinivasan to paint the Republicans into a corner. Republicans have already helpfully handed the President all he needs to paint their opposition to his eventual nominee as political and not substantive with their incredibly shortsighted to demand right away that President Obama stay away from nominating a new Justice.

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Harry Reid, I am certain, has other tricks up his sleeve to frustrate the Republican leadership by essentially ending the Senate's business until the President's nominee gets a vote. He could use executive sessions (the motion is non-debatable) to halt business, block unanimous consent requests for short breaks or recesses, and pull every parliamentary maneuver to make Republicans go on record. Even worse for the GOP, by constantly asking for procedural votes on the nomination, he can force Republicans to show up and be on the Senate floor.

And no Democratic Senator will pay a political price for standing with Reid and President Obama on this. It will be like the GOP's government shutdown, part deux. Democrats will coalesce around the Constitutional principle of giving the president's nominee a vote, and Republicans will be seen as the party of destruction, endangering the very operation of government itself. And this time, there won't be a malfunctioning website to go after when it's done.

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We are also just one justice away from the Supreme Court no longer holding the notion that money is speech. We are one justice away from restoring the Voting Rights Act's protections for minorities.

All of these issues - women's right to reproductive care without interference from their states or their bosses, gun safety, money in politics, voting rights - play in favor of a blue electorate, if only they come out to vote. A high profile fight over the President's nominee to replace Scalia - especially one in which Republicans are seen as political obstructionists rather than conscientious objectors - will insure those voters come out. And they will come out to punish the Republicans even if - perhaps more accurately, when - the President eventually wins the fight to seat his nominee. In other words, Republicans may end up with the worst of both worlds: President Obama's appointee replacing Scalia, and a 16-year Democratic rein in the White House.

Read More: http://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2016/2/14/why-obama-wants-scotus-fight

GoBama!