Time For Obama To Call The GOP On Its Obstruction

Republican Senator Jeff Flake from Arizona admitted what everyone already knew, that the GOP refusal to even give Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland a hearing is purely political. “Our position shouldn’t be that the next president ought to decide. Nobody really believes that, because if this were the last year of a Republican presidency nobody would say that,” said Flake.  Flake continued, “If we come to a point where we’ve lost the election, and we can get a centrist like Garland in there as opposed to someone like Hillary Clinton might appoint then I’d go for it.”

The Republican party keeps on breaking the norms of governance in a desperate bid to hold on to power rather than move the country forward with any real agenda. The impeachment of a President over an extra-marital affair, the government shutdowns, the lying about the need for war, the illegal torture, the refusal to even consider a Supreme Court nominee, and now the refusal of the party’s nominee to release his taxes, the GOP has spent the last two decades destroying the institutions of governance. Republicans have happily admitted that they believe an ineffective government works to their political advantage. And one reason that they have been able to get away with this for so long is that they know on really important issues the adults in the room, i.e. Democrats, will do the right thing for the country. That is why Boehner had to rely on Democratic votes to pass a budget that eventually cost him his job. That is why Bill Clinton wasn’t convicted of impeachment. That is why Democrats, unaware of the extent of the lies, stood behind Bush when he said he needed to go to war with Iraq.

For once, I would love to see Obama turn the tables, though he is probably too interested in playing the long game and being a statesman to do it. The day after Hillary Clinton is elected, he should pull the nomination of Merrick Garland and, since the Republicans have always said the next President should decide who should be the next Supreme Court justice, ask Hillary who she would like to nominate. And Hillary should go for the most liberal justice she can find. And what will the GOP’s excuse be then – that they really wanted to vote for Merrick Garland. Well, they had their chance and they didn’t even try. They wanted to have their cake and eat it too, being able to run on controlling the Supreme Court with the knowledge that they could always confirm a centrist in the lame duck session if they lost. It is time for the Republicans to pay a real price for the partisan politics that breaks all the norms of governance and rely on Democrats to bail them out. Perhaps this might teach them a lesson. I’m under no illusion this would work and have stated before that if the GOP holds the Senate there will be a large block of GOP Senators who will want to continue to block Garland and then anyone else Hillary nominates. But it would put the reasonable Senators in the GOP caucus on notice that Democrats won’t put up with these shenanigans any longer.