Senator Mitch McConnell - Hypocrite On SCOTUS Nominations (With a Related Question For Senator Pat Toomey)

By now we've all read about the passing of Associate Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Now comes the task of nominating someone else to the Court.

And of course, what would have been a difficult task for any earlier administration is looking to be impossible for this one.

Or that's how it's looking if we take Senator Mitch McConnell at his word:

The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President.

Ok, two problems with this.

The first, dealt with by Massachusetts Senator ElizabethWarren:

“Senator McConnell is right that the American people should have a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice. In fact, they did — when President Obama won the 2012 election by five million votes,” Warren wrote on her Twitter page.

In another Tweet, she cited language in the US Constitution — which spells out the right for a president to nominate a Supreme Court Justice.

“Article II Section 2 of the Constitution says the president of the United States nominates justices to the Supreme Court, with the advice and consent of the Senate. I can’t find a clause that says ‘...except when there’s a year left in the term of a Democratic president,’” she wrote.

And then the second, what McConnell himself said in 2005:

Any President’s judicial nominees should receive careful consideration. But after that debate, they deserve a simple up-or-down vote.

And yet for some reason, now the Senator from Kentucky has decided to obstruct President Obama's constitutional duties.

Let's not forget what McConnell said (with a smirk) in 2010:


McConnell failed then (with a smirk I add an "obviously").  Let's just hope he fails now.

But let's ask Senator Toomey, who's up for reelection:

Senator Toomey, does president Obama have the constitutional authority to nominate someone to the Supreme Court NOW or should he defer to Senator McConnell and let the question be settled LATER by the next president?

I'd love to hear your answer, Senator.  I am sure John Fetterman, Katie McGinty, and Joe Sestak would love to hear it too.