12 Comments on “LBJ’s election year SCOTUS nomination was not confirmed”

1. 
   Puppy Jack said at 10:33 am on February 14th, 2016:

   Mitch McConnell will never allow the Senate to consider, much less confirm, anyone that President Obama nominates. The Supreme Court will have 8 justices for at least another year.

   On a related note, whenever the Supreme Court votes 4 to 4 on a particular case, the decision of the lower court is affirmed, however it is affirmed without national precedent. I suspect that there will be more than a few cases decided this term with 4 to 4 votes.

2. 
   Bob English said at 11:23 am on February 14th, 2016:

   Funny how some Republicans like McConnell and most of their presidential candidates will embrace the Constitution when it fits their needs but when it comes to the current President exercising his right and duty to nominate the next Supreme Court justice that is where they draw the line.

   McConnell was very foolish to say what he did just minutes after the announcement of Justice Scalia’s passing (just reminds people that some of the R’s in the do nothing Congress opposes anything Obama proposes even though they have not even heard who the nominee is) and some of the others were foolish to agree with him. I would expect POTUS to nominate a someone that is highly qualified and moderate enough for the Senate to confirm them…..from a purely political perspective, the R’s actually have more leverage right now then they might have after November especially if there is another D President elected and the D’s retake the Senate.

3. 
   Republican in name and actions said at 2:58 pm on February 14th, 2016:

   Funny how President Obama will embrace the constitution when it fits his needs .

   When it doesn’t he has a phone and a pen.

4. 
   Oh, please. Really. said at 4:46 am on February 15th, 2016:

   You’re wrong bob English.

   It is the President’s job to RECOMMEND someone for appointment to the position of Supreme Court Justice. It is the Senate’s job to CONSIDER the President’s recommendations, and AFFIRM the man or woman they feel is best qualified to do the job. It is the Senate who has the responsibility of doing the actual “hiring” of the SCOTUS Justices, not the President, according to our Constitution, and the Senate has the right to handle the President’s recommendations AS IT SEES FIT. That’s what’s called a Balance of Power. Look it up.

   Now back to you, Bob English.

   You, Bob English, are no Senator, nor are you a politician of any high rank or consequence. You will not personally change the world, or save a soul, by endlessly flooding the local internet with all the mindless talking points you’ve hunted down from someone, or from somewhere, else.

   Enough.
   A good man has just passed.
   So quit your ugly spin-doctoring, and drop the Bernie Sanders style Democrat talking points. That nonsense doesn’t fly here on a local level.

   Justice Antonin Scalia was a remarkable and brilliant human being whose contribution during his time on this earth was enormous. Show some respect for him and for his family during a difficult time.

5. 
   Bob English said at 12:39 pm on February 15th, 2016:

   According to my pocket copy of the Constitution, the President “nominates” Supreme Court justices so I would suggest you are incorrect.

   I’m sure everyone here feels enlightened now that you have advised them I am not a United States Senator!!!

   Agree that politics asides Justice Scalia was a good and decent man but would note that Mitch McConnell was the one who foolishly was saying within minutes of the announcement of the Judges passing that the Republican would not consider any replacement nominated by the current POTUS …..and that is without hearing who the nominee is!!! Fits in with McConnell and company being against anything Obama proposes just because its his idea (even it had been something previously supported or proposed by Republicans).

   I would note I did not say anything derogatory towards the just judge but it was Republicans (McConnell and the R presidential candidates) who raised the issue so you might suggest that they “show some respect at this difficult time”.

6. 
   Republican in name and actions said at 11:42 am on February 16th, 2016:

   Lets get something straight,

   Article II Section 2 of the Constitution reads:

   The President shall have the power, by with the Advice and Consent of the Senate [to] appoint Judges to the Supreme Court

   The little part that the Liberals seem to forget is that the pesky part about Senate Consent. The President does not always get what he wants and that is EXACTLY the reason the Constitution is written the way it is.

   You see the Liberals always “forget” when they use Constitutional Proceedure to their benefit and cry foul when the Conservatives do.

   This is nothing new.

   Don’t Believe me well this is part of the our history:

   Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell was considered a moderate, often referred to as a “swing vote” in close decisions. Even before his expected retirement on June 27, 1987, Senate Democrats had asked liberal leaders to form a “solid phalanx” to oppose whomever President Ronald Reagan nominated to replace Powell, assuming that it would tilt the court rightward. Democrats warned Reagan there would be a fight over the nomination if Bork were to be the nominee.

   Within 45 minutes of Bork’s nomination to the Court, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) took to the Senate floor with a strong condemnation of Bork in a nationally televised speech, declaring,

   Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens

   Not one Democrate voted to confirm Bork.

   This happened, sorry liberals you can not rewrite history.

   BTW Joey Biden was Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and he lead the charge against Bork. NOW he cries foul. Really.

   On to another confirmation hearing this was said about Clarence Thomas:
   Perhaps the best known use of the verb to bork occurred in July 1991 at a conference of the National Organization for Women in New York City. Feminist Florynce Kennedy addressed the conference on the importance of defeating the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. She said, “We’re going to bork him. We’re going to kill him politically. . . . This little creep, where did he come from?”Thomas was subsequently confirmed after a contentious confirmation hearing.

   LBJ had a list of Supreme court condidates before becoming President. LBJ openly sought the resignation of Justices during his term. Dirty Tricks by a Liberal oh my how they “forget”.

   Just to show this works both ways, President Lyndon Johnson, who had chosen not to seek re-election, nominated Abe Fortas, who was already an associate justice on the court, to become chief justice in 1968. In that case, the Senate blocked Fortas’ promotion with a filibuster.

   So go head President Obama, nominate your candidate and lets hope he goes the way of Robert Bork and Abe Fortas.

   AND please stop crying foul. This is the game, you play it full out and to deny or cry foul when someone else does paints you as a bunch of Hypocrites.

7. 
   Heard today said at 8:52 pm on February 16th, 2016:

   clips of the hypocrite-in-chief, (on Levin’s show,) as a senator in 2006, yammering on about how the incumbent president shouldn’t get to put up a justice that might be “philosophically against and unfair” to all the people: how it changes, when it now is he, intending to once again impose the most leftist, revisionist he can find, on us..( add that to his parting gifts of weakness, debt, division, and no respect!).. he’s disgusting.. What a sad, untimely,and devastating loss this is: it will be nearly impossible to find someone with the dedication and brilliance of the wonderful justice, Scalia..if the GOP doesn’t hang tough and refuse to confirm, we are over as a party, and country!

8. 
   Bob English said at 11:02 pm on February 16th, 2016:

   Don’t blame Borks rejection on the D’s. He was deeply flawed which is part of the reason why several Republican Senators voted not to confirm him. Would also note that Justice Kennedy was nominated by President Reagan. Kennedy was confirmed by a vote of 97-0 in less than 8 weeks after he was nominated. His confirmation took place in February of 1988 which was Reagan’s last year as President.

   Bottom line is that the President will do his job and nominate someone for the empty seat on the SC and the Senate should do its job and give that person a fair hearing and then vote.

9. 
   Republican in name and actions said at 9:15 am on February 17th, 2016:

   Are you kidding me. Do you really believe your own drivel

   Bottom line the Senate should do exactly what other Senates have done. It works both ways.

   To quote that “great consitutional scholar” Chuck Schumer:

   “We should not confirm any Bush nominee to the Supreme Court, except in extraordinary circumstances,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in prepared remarks to the American Constitution Society, a liberal legal organization.

   Schumer cited ideological reasons for the delay.

   Its on video.

   How about your Presidents comments when he was a Freshman Senator:

   Then-Senator Barack Obama said in 2006 that he supported the Democratic-led filibuster to stop Justice Samuel Alito from making it to the Supreme Court.

   There are some who believe that the president, having won the election, should have complete authority to appoint his nominee…that once you get beyond intellect and personal character, there should be no further question as to whether the judge should be confirmed. I disagree with this view.
   Obama wasn’t the only Democratic senator to oppose Alito’s nomination. The late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) led an opposition coalition, which attempted to filibuster to block the confirmation process. Kennedy was joined by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who publicly stated they opposed Alito’s confirmation.

   Here is another for you:

   In 1960, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed a resolution to block President Eisenhower from being able to make any more recess appointments to the Supreme Court.

   We agree on one thing. Obama send your Nominee on over. That’s where it ends…..

   Therefore, as you say about Bork(and I gave other examples) Lets hope the Republicans in the Senate find any Obama nominee “deeply flawed”

   Don’t stress. Obama will not be making any history by not getting his Nominee confirmed. He stands in good company in that regard. Take a look:

   George Washington
   James Madison
   John Quincy Adams
   Andrew Jackson
   John Tyler
   James K. Polk
   James Buchanan
   Andrew Johnson
   Ulysses S. Grant
   Rutherford B. Hayes
   Grover Cleveland
   Herbert Hoover
   Lyndon B. Johnson
   Richard Nixon
   Ronald Reagan
   George W. Bush

   I know sorry to confuse the issue with facts.

10. 
    Bob English said at 9:31 am on February 17th, 2016:

    I would suggest that sticking to the process specified in the Constitution is not “drivel”.

    Not sure how you seem to have a problem with the idea of the President doing his job (nominate) and the Senate doing its job (have a fair hearing and then vote). If a Senator don’t not think the candidate is qualified, have the guts to go on record and vote no. If they think a candidate is qualified, then vote yes. Putting all of the nonsense aside, I would note that the process is pretty simple which is why it has never taken more than 125 days to confirm a SC judge and all SC judges confirmed in roughly the past 50+ years were confirmed within 90 days.

    The idea that some Republican Senators seemed to have initially embraced (not even consider a nominee or saying they would vote no prior to even knowing whom the nominee is) was asinine.

11. 
    If only said at 10:54 am on February 17th, 2016:

    this president had stuck to the “separation of powers” part in the Constitution, as he used his “phone- and-pen” to impose his arrogant executive orders on us: which, we hope, our next president will strike down! – You don’t get to pick and choose if and when you follow our Constitution: this president has disrespected every good thing about this country from day- one, in his sick plan to destroy us and make us a third- world nation. The frightening thing is, he accomplished a lot of it, in less than 8 years!

12. 
    Republican in name and actions said at 3:22 pm on February 17th, 2016:

    You are the eptiome of the Liberal.

    You comments are drivel because you can not admit or even see past your Liberal bias that the Democrates played this game throughtout history.

    I guess the Republicans have a good example at being asinine:

    1) To quote that “great consitutional scholar” Chuck Schumer:

    “We should not confirm any Bush nominee to the Supreme Court, except in extraordinary circumstances,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in prepared remarks to the American Constitution Society, a liberal legal organization.

    Schumer cited ideological reasons for the delay.

    Its on video.

    2) Then-Senator Barack Obama said in 2006 that he supported the Democratic-led filibuster to stop Justice Samuel Alito from making it to the Supreme Court.

    There are some who believe that the president, having won the election, should have complete authority to appoint his nominee…that once you get beyond intellect and personal character, there should be no further question as to whether the judge should be confirmed. I disagree with this view.

    3) In 1960, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed a resolution to block President Eisenhower from being able to make any more recess appointments to the Supreme Court.

    BTW to quote the President “to the victors go the spoils.”

    When Obama’s nominee is not confirmed I hope it won’t cause him to have to up the dosage on his blood pressure meds.

    Have a nice day.