Quote of the Week...from Mitch McConnell

The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice.    
                                                                          ---Mitch McConnell

The United States Senate's majority party has been Republican for the last two years of the Obama presidency and for all of Trump's so far.  Kentucky's Mitch McConnell has been majority leader the entire period and has ruled his caucus with a tight rein, demanding strict party loyalty on the vast majority of votes.  And "his" senators have by-and-large meekly complied like sheep with his whims, basically turning the Senate into a one-man legislative body.  In February of 2016, United States Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, a strong conservative, unexpectedly passed away, leaving a vacancy.  Within three hours of the announcement, before President Obama could even talk with him about it, McConnell issued a press release stating that he would not consider any Obama appointment to fill the seat and that it would be filled by the winner of the coming November election after he or she took office.  The above quote was made during this period...Barack Obama, who actually WAS the American people's duly-elected president at the time, still submitted federal judge Merrick Garland as his nominee.  But McConnell snubbed Garland's attempts to meet with him and Charles Grassley, the Senate Judiciary chairman, refused to hold confirmation hearings.  The rest is history: Republican Donald Trump won the election, the Republicans retained control over the Senate, and Neil Gorsuch filled Scalia's seat instead of Garland.  Now fast forward to today in 2019 with the 2020 campaign and election looming ahead.  I've previously suggested on this blog that should another vacancy occur on the Supreme Court during 2020, Mitch McConnell would weasel out of his so-called "principled" rationale for blocking Obama's 2016 nominee and instead push through a Trump replacement nominee.  So when he was questioned about this last week in Paducah, Kentucky, he confirmed my suspicions by stating precisely that...

I know that many, many people keep political score on the United States Supreme Court composition and how the tally of conservatives vs. liberals will tilt the balance regarding strongly divisive issues, some of which carry enormous weight with different people and their associated interest groups  My problem is that on some things I'm on the conservative side and on others I'm more to the left.  I don't have any phobia about an "unbalanced" Court wrecking our country and our rights, but I do believe that when the political leaders responsible for processing its nominees are only interested in playing that numbers game for their own "side" and switch from principle to expediency whenever it suits them, then the system becomes corrupted and everybody eventually loses out when they lose respect for the process...and consequently the Court rulings when they are issued.  I never did like McConnell because of his naked hypocrisy on this and other issues...can't the Republicans come up with anyone better to lead them?  I can think of several in the Senate who would do a better job. As far as I can tell, conservatives and liberals alike despise him...Rush Limbaugh even derisively refers to him as "the Turtle"....