In witness whereof, I hereunto set my hand this day, and solemnly affirm.. I am useless.
GOP refuses a hearing for anyone Senate smack stirs Supreme outrage
DO OUR JOBS? What do we look like, elected officials who swore an oath to work for the American people?
Senate Republicans flatly ditched their constitutional duties Tuesday, as peevish party leaders pledged they would not hold a hearing or vote for anyone President Obama nominates to fill the Supreme Court seat left open by the death of Antonin Scalia.
The 11 cantankerous Republican members of the Senate Judicia- ry Committee signed a sharply worded letter explaining their blatant political ploy to block any nominee put forward by the lameduck President as an effort to protect the American people.
“Given the particular circumstances under which this vacancy arises, we wish to inform you of our intention to exercise our constitutional authority to withhold consent on any nominee to the Supreme Court submitted by this President to fill Justice Scalia’s vacancy,” the GOP senators wrote.
“Because our decision is based on constitutional principle and born of a necessity to protect the will of the American people, this committee will not hold hearings on any Supreme Court nominee until after our next President is sworn in on January 20, 2017,” they added.
The controversial and unprecedented letter was signed by Sens. Charles Grassley (Iowa), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Jeff Sessions (Alabama), Lindsey Graham (South Carolina), John Cornyn (Texas), Michael Lee (Utah), Jeff Flake (Arizona), David Vitter (Louisiana), David Perdue (Georgia), Thom Tillis (North Carolina) and presi- dential candidate Ted Cruz of Texas.
Shortly after the letter was released, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — who only nine years ago as Senate minority leader said federal judges nominated by then-President George W. Bush deserved up-or-down votes — announced he would abide by the request of his hard-headed colleagues.
“I agree with the Judiciary Committee’s recommendation to not have hearings. In short, there will not be action taken,” said McConnell, who within hours of Scalia’s
death on Feb. 13 vowed not to confir many Obama nominee.
The crabby Kentucky Republican added that he wouldn’t even meet with an Obama selection.
“I don’t know the purpose of such a visit,” McConnell said. “I would not be inclined to take one myself.”
The letter was widely met with derision.
Obama took to Twitter to tell his legislative underlings to carry out the jobs they were elected to do.
“With more than 300 days left in President Obama’s term, the Senate has no excuse to delay,” the commander-in-chief wrote, concluding his post with “#DoYourJob.”
The hashtag quickly took off on social media, with a slew of Democratic lawmakers — and regular court-watchers — echoing Obama’s wish.
“Just a reminder,” 2016 Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton tweeted, along with a retweet of a post of hers from last week that read, “A message for Senate Republicans: Fill this vacancy. @POTUS will do his job. Do yours.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was stunned by his colleagues’ flagrant partisanship.
“The party of Lincoln is becoming the party of Donald Trump,” Reid said in a statement, lambasting the GOP for borrowing tricks from the divisive front-runner who said the Senate should “delay, delay, delay” any nomination.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the top Democrat on the committee, said he had never seen such outrageous neglect of duty during his time on the panel.
“During my time on the committee, we have never refused to send a Supreme Court nominee to the full Senate for a confirmation vote, even when the majority of the committee opposed the nomination,” Leahy said in a statement.
Meanwhile, a letter from the Supreme Court’s doctor Tuesday said Scalia suffered from coronary artery disease, obesity and diabetes that probably contributed to his death.