{If "most Americans...absolutely despise Citizens United," why President Obama would want to nominate a "moderate" who would leave that decision standing is beyond me. This is precisely the kind of argument the Democratic president, and the party generally, should be glad to pick.)
But there's another way the Republicans could hurt themselves with such obstructionism.
To fail to vote on a President's Supreme Court nominee, with nearly a year to go in his term - it's not as though Scalia's death created this vacancy only a month before the election - would be unprecedented. (At least, so I believe. Has any Senate refused to vote on a Supreme Court nomination submitted nearly a year before the end of the president's term?)
Indeed, their immediate, unjustified, and wholly partisan warning to the president not to nominate a successor to Scalia was disgraceful, a violation of American political norms. It reveals the Republicans utter commitment to their own power, regardless of how it shreds the American political tradition.
:Mitch-McConnell
(Image by (From Wikimedia) Unknown author, Author: Unknown author) Details Source DMCA
Such a disgrace, in itself, could be made a potent election issue, affecting the presidential race, and even more directly affecting the fight for control of the Senate.
So it is not just that putting a focus on the Supreme Court raises issues that might be disadvantageous for the Republicans in the coming election. But it is also that they might hand the Democrats an opportunity to expose the Republicans for the political atrocity that they've become.
It is true that there have been no shortage of such opportunities, and it is true that the Democrats have often shrunk from seizing such opportunities and making the Republicans pay a political price for their scandalous behavior.
But this is an election year, and - as the Republicans have lately been in disarray --the Democrats have been showing more boldness and confidence in the political fight. Moreover, they will soon have a new standard bearer who may be more disposed to press such a battle.
I certainly hope so. There's so much at stake, and the Republicans have shown themselves once again deserving of whatever political punishment an effective Democratic Party can dish out(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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