SCOTUS Appointment

According to the U.S. Constitution, the President is elected to a 4-year term and one of the duties of the job is to nominate people to fill vacant seats on the Supreme Court. President Obama is only 3/4 of the way through his term. By what logic do the gop obstructionists in Congress arrive at the conclusion that he shouldn't put up a nominee to fill the Scalia seat? Anybody?

I agree with you, Doc, BHO should and will nominate a replacement for Scalia, and the Republicans know he will. The Scalia death will be a giant blow to conservatism in our country, unless BHO's nominee can be stopped in the Senate, and a Republican can win the presidential election. If the Republicans lose the election, it won't matter if Obama's nominee gets confirmed or not during his term.

I heard some crazy stories today. One guy at work thought Scalia's death was suspicious and he predicts Obama will impose martial law and postpone the election. Sounds like a John Grisham novel!

I almost missed your post. So good to see you back. So very jealous to see your picture with one of my favorite players. How did you manage that!!!!

Just another typical day in the right wing blogosphere.

Interesting that the self-righteous, Chuck Schumer, advocated blocking any Bush nominee over his last 18 months in office, and now he is outraged at the thought of the Republicans doing the same.

www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/02/...n_obama_nominee.html

I totally agree with Charles Lipson. Obama represents our country and the presidency, and not just himself, the Democratic Party, and progressives. Do you think that he would skip a funeral for a liberal Supreme Court Justice? And he wonders why he hasn't been able to ford the partisan divide. I was equally irritated when he didn't attend Margaret Thatcher's funeral. I hope this will give the Republicans in the Senate even more incentive to block BHO's upcoming Supreme Court nominee.

www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/..._funeral_129702.html

From the article:

President Obama's decision not to attend Justice Antonin Scalia's funeral is shameful. It mirrors his decision to skip the state funeral for Margaret Thatcher in 2013. On these somber, formal occasions, the president is called upon to represent our country as the head of state. He is not representing his party, his political agenda, or himself personally. He is representing our country—or at least he should be. On Saturday, it is his duty to mourn a man who sat on the Supreme Court for decades. He is shirking that duty.


But on those rare occasions when called upon to act as our nation's head of state, he must quash those partisan instincts. At such times, he speaks for us all.


Refusing to attend the funeral does more than insult the memory of a life-long public servant. It is a failure to perform a basic presidential duty. Obama has shirked his responsibility to all of us.

Love the photo, Doc. Couldn't see you before!

Lookin' good!

Obama appears to forget he was elected the president by all, not just democrats. Sadly, this doesn't surprise me. He has always looked down on anyone who didn't agree with him. I feel sorry for the Scalia family for this political snub.

I was lucky enough to attend Ladies Night with Bill Self. I met all the players and coaches! Toured the locker room, media room, saw all the new uniforms, etc. It was the most fun I have had since the 2008 Big 12 Championship game at the Sprint Center!

You really should fly in this October and attend.

The protocol is for either the President OR the Vice-President to attend such funerals and VP Biden has already said he will be attending Scalia's funeral. This is yet another example of the Obama haters finding anything the President does to be worthy of their outrage.

FYI, folks: Pres. Obama attended Scalia's wake. You are now free to start looking for something else to be outraged about.

Doc wrote, "FYI, folks: Pres. Obama attended Scalia's wake." Thanks for this breaking news, Doc!

Interesting conversation on Funeralgate with Megyn Kelly and Charles Krauthammer.



I also like this tweet from MSNBC's, Chris Hayes--not exactly an Obama hater: Some amazing advice my mom gave me once: "If you're wondering whether you should go to the funeral, you should go to the funeral."

You are, of course, presuming that the President was "wondering" if he should attend the funeral. I wonder if Scalia was wondering if he should attend the SOTU address he boycotted?

Doc wrote, "You are, of course, presuming that the President was "wondering" if he should attend the funeral." Evidently, Chris Hayes thought so.

Then Doc wrote, "I wonder if Scalia was wondering if he should attend the SOTU address he boycotted?" Probably not, since he didn't attend any of George W. Bush's SOTU speeches either.

Chris Hayes (and his mother) are certainly entitled to there opinion though I have serious doubts that either of them (or you) know with any certainty what President Obama thinks about such private things. Scalia didn't attend ANY of Obama's SOTU addresses? Wow, he's a bigger racist than I thought.

Since he didn't attend any of George W. Bush's SOTU addresses, he must not have liked Caucasians either.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/29/an...lia-looking-backward

Sweet!

www.cbsnews.com/news/joe-biden-once-took...preme-court-vacancy/

From the video:

"It is my view that if a Supreme Court justice resigns tomorrow or within the next several weeks, or resigns at the end of the summer, President Bush should consider following the practice of a majority of his predecessors and not, and not name a nominee until after the November election is completed," said Biden, who was then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on June 25, 1992.

In fact, he said that if President Bush put forward a nominee, the Judiciary Committee - his committee - should "seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until after the political campaign season is over."

Well, Biden was wrong and so are obstructionists in the Senate now.. I think the bill for this will come due in November.