Friday, August 6, 2010
News Elena Kagan Confirmed As Senate Tell Obama Not to Bother Nominating Anyone At All in the Event That Scalia or Kennedy Dies During His Second Term
Posted by Mark Asch on Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 3:25 PM
Look, it is of course legitimate to vote against a Supreme Court nominee for ideological reasons—as then-Senator Obama voted Nay on John Roberts—and it is, of course, even legitimate to filibuster a nominee who's ideologically beyond the pale (Obama was one of 25 Democrat senators who voted against a motion to end debate on the nomination of Sam Alito, who was pretty borderline). But it's also in the best interests of the Senate—and, you know, America—to not have the minority party reflexively block consideration of reasonable, worthy proposals with which it happens to disagree. Not, as George Packer so exhaustively reminds us this week, that the Senate is remotely capable of acting in its own best interests. Let's hope there's not another vacancy on the Supreme Court until such time as Americans have made clear their disgust with the filibuster.
Top Commenters
