Thirty-eight days. That's how long we have until election day. President Trump will name his Supreme Court pick today. In 2016, President Obama named Merrick Garland with seven-and-a-half months (on March 16) until election day...and Mitch McConnell said that was too close to election day and that we should wait until the people chose a new president to confirm that choice. He refused to even hold hearings, let alone allow a vote. (Given the political atmosphere, Garland probably would not have been confirmed anyway, but he deserved to be heard.)
Yet, today, Mitch McConnell is promising a vote on Trump's pick before November 3...and claims it's a different situation, because now the White House and the Senate are controlled by the same party. In other words, timing never had anything to do with it...it was always about party. Chances are, if Obama had had the opportunity to name another justice in 2015, McConnell would have held up that one, too. (I note that Obama's two successful nominations were made in 2009 and 2010, when the Democrats controlled the Senate.)
I remember when court nominations, though there may have been controversy over specific policies and decisions--such as civil rights, voting, campaign financing--were not fought along party lines. Even in the highly contentious Nixon era, nominees were confirmed by wide majorities, often nearly unanimously...because it was seen that a president, even Richard Nixon, would choose nominees who were largely centrist, despite leanings in one direction or the other.
I long for a return to such civility.
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