Mitch McConnell Assaulted the Constitution (and Got Away With It)

[deminks]

https://www.thenation.com/article/mitch-mcconnell-assaulted-the-constitution-and-got-away-with-it/

Patriotic indignation is currently pounding on Comrade Putin for his dirty tricks befouling the US presidential election and on Citizen Trump for his indifference to the cyber scandal. But a far greater crime against American democracy is under way that’s clearly visible and scarcely noted.

The Republican Senate leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, violated the Constitution, and he has not been properly punished for his offense. He unilaterally blocked any appointment to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last February. McConnell announced within hours that there would be no replacement for the Supreme Court vacancy until after a new president is elected.

President Obama ignored McConnell’s illegal diktat and nominated a distinguished appellate judge, Merrick Garland, to sit on the Court. A few senators had polite conversations with Judge Garland, but the Judiciary Committee refused to hold any hearings on confirmation or even acknowledge that the president had fulfilled his duty as prescribed in the Constitution. The Senate majority leader simply refused to perform his constitutional duty in the “advise and consent” process.

McConnell wasn’t subtle about his political motive. He announced he was holding the Constitution at bay in the hope that a Republican would win the presidential election and therefore conservatives could restore their 5-4 majority. Trump’s victory fulfilled McConnell’s gamble. The country will suffer the damaging consequences of right-wing lawmaking for years to come.

(snip)

If Trump does nominate a hard-headed extremist to please the Bible lobby, it might be time to file an impeachment resolution against McConnell. The resolution would accuse him of violating his constitutional duty and undermining respect for law and justice in order to achieve a cheap political victory. It’s a simple, straightforward case that could be tried in one day.

(end snip)

Time to play hardball. This is a man who also turned his back on his country and refused to investigate intelligence that told him the Russians were meddling in our election. The pictures of Impeach McTurtle signs would be perfect on the evening news, IMHO.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. It's only "criminal" if you're both caught and prosecuted.

Mitch dodged a big one.

[COLGATE4]

3. No. It's only criminal if a) you're caught;

b) you're prosecuted; and c) you're not a Republican.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Point taken.

[Faux pas]

2. I'm sure that

trump and his conservative pals will be burning the Constitution on the Capital steps soon enough.

[tritsofme]

5. The author of this piece is not very bright

It was norm-shattering for McConnell and Senate Republicans to refuse to consider Judge Garland, but it was not "illegal" and does not violate the Constitution, advice and consent is a prerogative of the Senate.

Then at the end, he suggests impeaching McConnell?

Um...What??

For this author, I might suggest an intermediate civics class prior to publishing any more of this sort junk in what used to be a prestigious and smart magazine.

McConnell has set a nasty new precedent that will do lasting damage in that it now seems inevitable that oppositional Senate majorities will refuse to consider Supreme Court nominees. This was bad, it is not illegal, voters empowered him to make those choices.