REPUBLICANS: Fast Times with the US Constitution

The Republicans are denigrating the death of US Supreme Court Justice A ntonin Scalia by turning his funeral into a political battle.

It has long been known that the US Supreme Court is a RW force in American politics, as it is 5—4 Republican.  The Court was author of the Bush v. Gore decision, which removed the election of a president from the choice of voters.  It was also responsible for the demise of democracy in America, holding the voting rights provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act unconstitutional.  Likewise it was responsible for overturning numerous gun control measures of the various states and municipalities.

The latest Republican assault on the US Constitution comes from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—yes, the same man who co-authored the McConnell-Boehner doctrine, providing for a government shutdown during the tenure of any black president—who says the President should not appoint a replacement for Justice Scalia, but leave it to the next President.

Article II of the United States Constitution defines the power of any given president to make appointments.  It says:

Article II, US Constitution wrote:The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

And goes on to say:

Article II, US Constitution wrote:...he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint ... Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law..."

It is important to note, for purposes of this discussion, that the Constitution of the United States does not say the next President “shall nominate…and appoint.”  The next president is not even mentioned in the Constitution.  I am sure that the Constitution contemplates a next president will come along, but it provides no role for him or her.  

It is absurd to assign a role for an imaginary individual who is not yet even known.  Why not provide for the third or forth president down the road to make Supreme Court appointments?  The US Constitution is a system of expressed and delegated powers.  Under the Constitution you don't make express provisions for imprecise and inexact persons.  Yet that is the very thing that Mitch McConnell is attempting to sell to the American public.

In the end, the Republicans have no respect for the political system of the United States.  This is consistent with the party that refuses to govern, and refuses to meet their responsibilities even while collecting a paycheck--or is it welfare?  

We hear so much about the dysfunction in Washington today, but it is dysfunction of Republicans.  Even Republican candidates cry and caw about 'the establishment' inside the beltway.  They complain about 'not reaching across the aisle', but will they be the ones who do so?  No...for them it's all take, and no give.   When we get down to specifics, we are only talking about Republican dysfunction.  Republicans are running Congress and the US Senate, and the Republican 'do-nothing' style of government is the source of the dysfunction.