Curious no one brings up what a total own goal this was for the Democrats.
For those not familiar with the term “own goal”, this comes from soccer: it occurs when the defending team hits the ball into their own net, hence scoring a goal for the other team.
Ginsburg should have retired in 2013 and allowed Obama to replace her while he had the majority in the Senate with him. But she had hubris, she wanted Hillary to nominate her replacement. Because Hillary wasn’t supposed to lose. But lose she did and Ginsburg was stuck. RIP
Had Obama been able to replace Ginsburg, the Democrats wouldn’t be in this fix now.
22 Presidents have been faced with a Supreme Court vacancy during an election year. All 22 nominated a candidate to fill the vacancy. Whether that candidate made it to the Supreme Court or not was almost entirely dependent on whether the Senate majority party was the same as the President’s. In election years where they were the same party, the nominees usually got through. In other election years, where the parties were different, the nominees usually did not make it.
So there exists precedent for what the Republican Senators did in 2016 and there exists precedent for what Trump and the Republican Senators did this time around. Is that political? It darn well is! Anyone who wants to wave their hands about this is going to have explain the precedent away somehow.
