This is how liberal democrats felt about judicial nominees near the end of President Reagan's term.
June 27, 1987
Senate Democrats had asked liberal leaders to form "a solid phalanx" to oppose whomever President Ronald Reagan nominated to replace him, assuming it would tilt the court rightward. Within 45 minutes of Bork's nomination to the Court, Ted Kennedy (D-MA) took to the Senate floor with a strong condemnation of Bork in a nationally televised speech, TV ads narrated by Gregory Peck attacked Bork as an extremist.
Now why shouldn't this current senate follow after those same concerns that the liberal democrats once held in the past, and place control in the approval of whom the SENATE prefers to see sitting in the Supreme Court?
The situation our nation has found itself in with respect to the need to find a new justice, as well as the impact it will have on the highest court in the land, are identical... only the parties on each side of the judicial process has changed. If this senate decided it wants to ALSO form the same "solid phalanx" as the democrats once had, they have every right to do so.
As a right of center Republican, if the individual nominee is a bad one, not a problem rake'em over the coals and hold a vote on the Senate floor and vote him/her down.
Bork got his time in front of the Senate and a vote was taken. Now what my Majority Leader is planning on doing though is blocking any nomination based on who the President is, not based on the qualifications of the nominee. That is wrong and not the intent of Article 2 Section 2.
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And that is the whole thing. Interview, cajole, lecture, get mad, trash someone, but you have to vote someone in. That is the line Republicans are about to cross. The line where a political party says "we don't recognize the authority of the Constitution in forcing the Senate to pick someone we don't want based on who is president". This will turn into a Constitutional crisis if this is the thought.
The senate has to approve someone. It will likely be a moderate which is fine.
But saying they aren't going to fulfill the Constitutional requirement, and YES that includes approving SOMEONE, then they are in essence saying "our agreement to live by this document has run its course, we follow only or party's best interest now, even at the expense of the Constitution."
I don't think they've thought it through, this IS a gigantic moment on whether this democracy continues on as is. THAT is how fragile a democracy is.