A most excellent op-ed in the Des Moines Register by our friend, Ari Rabin-Havt, on the expected hypocrisy from the GOP over the upcoming nomination battle. Working for Harry Reid, Ari had a front row seat when Republican Senators were espousing the need for "up and down" votes for Bush's judicial nominees. Back then, they were vehemently opposed to any delays -- and GOP leaders were going to invoke the "nuclear option" to preclude any filibusters. Let's see what they do now:
Four years ago this month, as a staffer for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, I sat at the back of the Senate Chamber and listened to Republicans denounce efforts to filibuster President Bush's judicial appointments. One after another, they sermonized about the body's constitutional, even moral, obligation to give each nominee an "up or down vote."My guess is that Grassley and his GOP colleagues demonstrate the deplorable cynicism. They have to cater to their hard-core wingnut constituents.
At the time, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said, "It's time to make sure all judges receive a fair vote on the Senate floor."
Now four years later, President Barack Obama has announced his first nomination to the Supreme Court. No one doubts Judge Sonia Sotomayor's qualifications. In fact, she was first appointed to the federal courts by President George H.W. Bush in 1991.
However, many conservatives, in a desperate attempt to reclaim relevance, are already calling on Senate Republicans to filibuster Obama's highly qualified pick.
Not only would this be one of the greatest acts of hypocrisy in the 220-year history of the Senate, it would be an admission by Republicans that their actions four years ago were nothing more than a political stunt.
If Grassley supports a filibuster on Sotomayor's nomination, he will make it undeniably clear that he is happy to use the Constitution as a political prop. We will be made acutely aware that he sees our founding documents as trivial things, to be revered when they are useful and cast aside when the political winds change direction. Such cynicism is far more deplorable than plain hypocrisy.
