The GOP’s blocking of Supreme Court pick is indefensible (GEORGE F. WILL!!!)

[KamaAina]

http://wilmingtonnewsjournal.de.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=112d528d9

The Republican Party’s incoherent response to the Supreme Court vacancy is a partisan reflex in search of a justifying principle. The multiplicity of Republican rationalizations for their refusal to even consider Merrick Garland radiates insincerity.

Republicans instantly responded to Antonin Scalia’s death by proclaiming that no nominee, however admirable in temperament, intellect and experience, would be accorded a hearing. They say their obduracy is right because: Because they have a right to be obdurate, there being no explicit constitutional proscription against this....

In their tossed salad of situational ethics, the Republicans’ most contradictory and least conservative selfjustification is: The court’s supposedly fragile legitimacy is endangered unless the electorate speaks before a vacancy is filled....

Trump’s multiplying Republican apologists do not deny the self-evident -- that he is as clueless regarding everything as he is about the nuclear triad. These invertebrate Republicans assume that as president he would surround himself with people unlike himself -- wise and temperate advisers. So, we should wager everything on the hope that the man who says his “number one” foreign policy adviser is “myself” (because “I have a very good brain”) will succumb to humility and rely on people who actually know things. If Republicans really think that either their front-runner or the Democrats would nominate someone superior to Garland, it would be amusing to hear them try to explain why they do.

[jberryhill]

1. They threw him undadabus long ago

[wt1531]

3. Only George Will finds apt use for the word

obduracy in a column and sending most of us to the dictionary yet again

[TrollBuster9090]

5. George Will is just showing us his famous carnival freak trick.

You know...that trick where he eats a thesaurus and then shits an opinion column.

[chapdrum]

17. Exactly.

Why would anyone on DU be interested in what this m'f'er thinks?

[BetterThanNoSN]

40. Because...

he is shitting on the Red team?

[Scurrilous]

32. LOL

Oh, the obduracy.

[tclambert]

12. It's so republicans won't know he insulted them. Only democrats will get it.

Republicans will think it means "durable" or something. Trump supporters, especially, love the fourth grade vocabulary of the guy with the "great brain." That college-level vocabulary marks George Will as some sort of secret librul.

[MisterP]

4. turtle fight!

[tclambert]

10. It's Thunderdome! Two turtles enter. One turtle leaves . . .

after a really, really long shoving contest.

[Orrex]

15. You've tortoise all a valuable lesson here today.

[unblock]

19. !

[spooky3]

22. good one!

[lastlib]

24. I generally have no interest in shell games.......

but this was worth the time!

[mdbl]

41. one is Mitch Mcconnell

who is the other one?

[JVS]

6. Why does Trump appear out of nowhere near the end of the article?

[SpankMe]

7. Something about a broken clock being right twice a day...

Will is a thundering right wing hack who, although pretty smart, is as curmudgeonly and obtuse as the next angry, old white guy.

But, frankly, I gotta agree with him here. This column could easily have been written by a liberal commentator.

The point of his mention of Trump at the end is that if Trump gets to name the next nominee for SCOTUS, we're all fucked because of what a dumbass Trump is.

Did I mention Trump is a dumbass?

On edit: I want to affirm - Donald Trump is a dumbass.

[maddiemom]

13. I agree 100%.

I read this column yesterday and was stunned. George Will being all honest over this S.C. appointment? McConnell remains so obstructionist, and yes-bigoted, (any Democratic president is now the enemy, even if pushing Republican ideas) but a half-black POTUS? What else explains McConnell's public intentions to obstruct Obama from Day One, and now refusing to even consider a Supreme Court nominee? Mitch could have done all this behind the public scene, if not wanting to show his disdain for Obama. This is what our government has come to? I'm seventy and have been active in politics since being a "Kennedy Girl" and recruiting others when JFK was appearing everywhere in 1960. I was friends with and respected many Republicans over the years. They've become a different, hateful breed lately, and the "sane" ones seem to be reeling. INMHO this U.S. political mess needs a few strong, sane voices on both sides. Ironically President Obama, a disappointment to many of us, is judiciously beginning to vindicate himself with those who've supported him. One obvious fact has become clear during his presidency: he's the smartest man and best strategist in the room. A lot of his strategies didn't work for him and yet he has always remained cool and in charge of his own emotions. Increasingly amazing to me.

[lastlib]

25. Why can't you just come out and say it? "Trump is a dumbass!"

[iandhr]

39. Beat me too it.

[vkkv]

8. Thanks for posting...... eom

[BumRushDaShow]

9. "These invertebrate Republicans"

[Missn-Hitch]

36. That phrase is the one!

Those three words....I cracked up. Just visualizing Will at his computer, typing those words, sitting back with a grin and tossing a baseball in the air.

[MillennialDem]

11. I think it's because George Will understands it is very very hard for republicans to

win in a general election.

And if they continue this crap they're guaranteed to lose.

[yellowcanine]

14. Will's brain must be addled by Trump.....

[chapdrum]

16. Georgie, after all you've sanctioned,

in your miserable career, please go f*ck yourself.

[D Gary Grady]

18. I'll say one good thing for George Will

George Will made me understand that not all my fellow Democrats are sensible people. Back in the early 1980s I read something to the effect that George Will was the one conservative columnist a number of Democrats had some respect for because of his intelligence and erudition. This inspired me to check out a book by Will from the library, and after reading it, I decided that anyone who thought George Will had intelligence and erudition couldn't possibly have good sense.

[unblock]

21. exactly. a big vocabulary does not, in and of itself, a smart man make.

similarly, they thought scalia was an intellectual powerhouse.

hardly. having a system of logic that that lets you rationalize just about anything you want, including state-sponsored murder of known innocents ("you're entitled to a fair trial, not a correct result&quot is not intellect. it's a sham.

[Skittles]

29. I'll never understand people thinking Scalia was 'brilliant"

the man was a partisan hack

[former9thward]

33. Law school case books are full of Scalia opinions.

And no, these books are not written by conservatives.

[unblock]

38. sure, he wrote many significant decisions.

that doesn't mean he arrived at them through dispassionate, intellectual legal reasoning.

[barbtries]

37. worse than a sham,

it's a pathology.

[Skittles]

30. I think George Will sounds like a pompous ass

which is exactly what he is

[MADem]

20. Wow--most famous political cheater -- Briefing Book George -- saying the right thing?

Is he trying to make it right with his maker or something? Guilt weighing on him?

Wonder what Carter thinks...

[cheapdate]

23. It is. Completely indefensible. I find myself in agreement with George Will for the first time ever.

[lastlib]

26. (you should feel dirty--go take a long, hot, soapy shower.)

[cheapdate]

27. Some conservatives consider George Will an "intellectual". Can you imagine?

[lastlib]

28. Any conservative who can correctly use the word "obduracy" in a sentence....

actually is a man among children in the wackosphere.

[cheapdate]

31. He's bookish, which is rare in the wackosphere (love that word - "wackosphere"!).

[seanjoycek476]

34. The GOP are a bunch of fools

Their defeats this November and in the years to come can't come soon enough.

[King_Klonopin]

35. "... a partisan reflex in search of a justifying principle."

This could be said about EVERY damn thing they do:

Voter I.D. laws
Citizens United ruling.
Opposing Court nominations at any level.
Tax cuts for the wealthy.
Opposing Minimum wage increases.
Opposing gun laws.
Rabidly opposing the ACA.
Dismantling Federal agencies like EPA, NLRB, DOE, etc.
Attacks on Planned Parenthood.

[man of few w]

42. And suicidal

Senate-losing suicidal.

[Joe Chi Minh]

43. Since when has 'no constitutional proscription against it', been

a lawful ground for repudiating historic, constitutional procedures ? As far as I am aware, there would be no constitutional proscription against the Republicans choosing to defecate in their trousers during working hours, but is that really relevant ?

[KamaAina]

44. Ted Nugent's in the Senate?