Antonin Scalia's corpse was still warm to the touch and the right wing extremists in this country were already foaming at the mouth like rabid dogs about the conservative old jurist's untimely passing.
Within a few hours, the wingnut wurlitzer on the intertoobz was churning out fire and damnation claims that Obama had Scalia murdered (yeah - because nobody has ever heard of a 79 year old, obese man who was also a smoker, keeling over from a heart attack - amiright?) so that he could appoint a liberal judge to the SCOTUS before his term is up.
They were also screaming that Obama has no right to appoint a successor - which The Gadfly ruefully observes shows just how constitutionally ignorant and extremist these so-called "patriotic" Americans truly are, which in The Gadfly's view only demonstrates all too frightfully just how much of a danger these assholes are to this nation's democracy -- so much more so than a rag-tag bunch of medieval religious nuts driving around in pickup trucks in the deserts of Syria.
In fact -- not only should Obama name a successor to Scalia, he is duty bound by the constitution to do so. And - the United States Senate is duty bound to give that nominee a fair hearing and a fair vote:
Article Two of the United States Constitution places the power of appointing Justices with the President of the United States, stating:
"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..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appointment_and_confirmation_to_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States
Nowhere in Article Two of the United States Constitution does it say that the sitting President needs to try and avoid upsetting the delicate political fee-fees of the opposition party by not nominating a successor during an election year -- nowhere does it say that -- and if the right wing and the GOP want to go down that rabbit hole and play that juvenile game, it truly is time to start seriously bandying about the words sedition and traitor when it comes to the right wing in this country --- and not very timorously in doing so The Gadfly might add.
Thankfully Obama is leagues more of an adult and a serious student of constitutional law than the hissy-fit, tantrum throwing right wing assholes are, and The Gadfly is certain the man will put forth a very qualified individual to succeed Scalia. Will that nominee be the dream nominee that dirty old fucking hippie liberals like The Gadfly have pined for for ages? Extremely unlikely. If anything, Obama has proven himself to be a moderate in the mold of Bill Clinton - and progressives like The Gadfly haven't been none too happy about a great many of his policies and positions.
The bottom line is this -- President Obama is a popularly elected President - twice over. When the people voted him in for that second term, by a landslide, that meant a clear majority of Americans trusted the man with the job of appointing Supreme Court justices should the occasion arise.
Mr. Obama has nearly a year left on his term. For the GOP Senate, at the behest of their wailing banshees of the right wing to arrogantly say that Obama needs to wait until the election is over to have the incoming president appoint a successor is the height of hypocrisy, not to mention a wholesale abdication of their constitutional duties as prescribed by law.
Oh -- and if anyone honestly is of the belief that if Obama were a white man, the Gop and the right would be treating him just as equally -- you are delusional and you really haven't been paying attention to what's been going on in this country for the past 7 years.
The Gadfly says enough of this childish, boorish bullshit from the Republicans and the right wing extremists. If they want to go down in history as the party and ideology of democracy's betrayers then so be it -- let the fuckers do it and then let them reap the ugly, legacy stained ignominy that will be their due reward.
----TFG
No comments:
Post a Comment