Justice Scalia's Replacement: No Hearings, No Vote until 2017

I thought that from a strategic standpoint, the naked mole rats known as the GOP should have kept their powder dry upon the death of Antonin Scalia, let President Obama nominate his leftwing loony, hold their hearings with all sobriety, and then vote the loony down.  That would take on the order of 60-80 days, putting us squarely into the fall campaign and foreclosing the possibility of another Obama nominee.

Mitch McConnell doesn't consult me, so he crawled out of his cardboard box and declared there would be no hearings...  Then, on cue, the Government-Infotainment Propaganda Complex stirred up a crapstorm, and Mitch the Mole Rat's cardboard box began to collapse, sending frightened senators scurrying for more nuanced positions.  The GOP Senate may now hold the hearing to consider the President's nominee.

So, it's all up in the air.

I read a transcript of Senator Hatch's comments, and I agree with him.  He essentially said the GOP should not go through the whole rigmarole of staging a hearing just to shoot down whatever left nut the President nominates.  It wastes time, its fundamentally dishonest, and its not fair to the nominee.

So, I say McConnell should stick to his guns and announce the President can submit a nominee per the constitution, but the Senate will not hold hearings in the midst of the quadrennial political clown car circus know as election season.  This is not the time to be selecting a Supreme Court Justice, especially to replace a jurist of Antonin Scalia's stature. 

Historical precedent is on the GOP's side. Kennedy was only the second time in our nation's history when an opposition party approved a president's nomination is his last year in office, and there have been at least seven rejections.  The court can function just fine with eight members.

Make the 2016 election about who should appoint the next Supreme Court Justice.  Let the people decide. It really is that important.

So, here is where the Supreme Court stands...

The court has a solid four-person liberal block: Breyer, Ginsberg, Sotomayor and Kagan (the sanest and smartest of them all, and who will be Chief Justice some day).

There are now two reliable conservatives on the court: Alito and Thomas (who better hire a food taster).

Rounding out the team are...

The switch-hitting trans-agendered Justice Kennedy...

... and Chief Justice Roberts, who hears voices, sees things that aren't there, and produces law from thin air. I think he studied Blackstone the Magician instead of Blackstone the esteemed British jurist.

The GOP would be nuts and suicidal to tip the court over into dangerously unbalanced territory by approving one more Obama leftwing loon like So-So Mayor or Ruth ACLU Buzzi.