Brought out the worst

The current debate about how RBG’s vacancy on the Supreme Court should be filled has brought out the worst on both sides of the aisle, but it certainly appears that the Republicans’ have lowered the bar the most by far.

Let’s ignore the duplicity of their pronouncements after their previous mental gymnastics saying that they would oppose a president in either party who was in their lame-duck year nominating a candidate.

They now maintain that because they hold the presidency and the Senate, it is OK to reverse their prior position. This argument presumes that the “advice and consent” is automatic rather than individually given following a careful review of the candidate’s credentials by each senator. If they had any moral consistency to argue in favor of Trump nominating a candidate before the election and their approving that candidate after the appropriate hearings then, at the least, they should have agreed to allow Merrick Garland’s nomination to advance. They could have then stated their reasons for voting it down in the Judiciary Committee or on the Senate floor.

The problem that course would have caused was that Garland was a centrist, about as liberal as Chief Justice Roberts is conservative. That would have been embarrassing and a hard vote to defend. One also wonders whether Majority Leader McConnell’s real fear was that a few members on his side of the aisle might have voted their conscience resulting in Garland’s confirmation since he had been previously confirmed 76-23 for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. PHILLIP PETERS

Little Rock