{"id":13120,"date":"2016-02-23T22:18:43","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T22:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=13120"},"modified":"2016-02-24T00:27:25","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T00:27:25","slug":"americans-have-already-decided-who-gets-to-choose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=13120","title":{"rendered":"Americans have already decided who gets to choose"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/SUPREME_COURT_POLITICS_48989905.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-13122\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13122\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/SUPREME_COURT_POLITICS_48989905-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., center, is joined by, from right to left, Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., as he speaks with reporters following a closed-door policy meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. The Senate will take no action on anyone President Barack Obama nominates to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, Senator McConnell said as nearly all Republicans rallied behind his calls to leave the seat vacant for the next president to fill. His announcement came after Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee ruled out any hearing for an Obama pick. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/SUPREME_COURT_POLITICS_48989905-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/SUPREME_COURT_POLITICS_48989905-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/SUPREME_COURT_POLITICS_48989905.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What part of the American electoral process don&#8217;t U.S. Senate Republican leaders understand?<\/p>\n<p>Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said &#8220;the American people should decide&#8221; who gets to make the next appointment to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>Texas Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n<p>McConnell said the Judiciary Committee will not conduct any hearings to decide whether to confirm whomever the president nominates. <a href=\"http:\/\/trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com\/2016\/02\/cornyn-cruz-senate-republicans-vow-to-block-any-supreme-court-nominee-hearings-until-2017.html\/\">It&#8217;s malarkey, man. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>OK, this isn&#8217;t an original thought, but it&#8217;s the best one I can come up with.<\/p>\n<p>Americans already have decided who gets to fill the vacancy created by the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia. They decided it in two presidential elections.<\/p>\n<p>Barack H. Obama won them both. He won the 2008 election by nearly 10 million votes; he was re-elected in 2012 by nearly 5 million votes.<\/p>\n<p>Both times the young man gave every indication he would find someone to sit on the court with whom he &#8212; as a progressive Democrat &#8212; was ideologically comfortable. Two of his picks, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan &#8212; already have taken their seats on the court.<\/p>\n<p>He gets to nominate\u00a0a third individual to succeed Justice Scalia.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, he&#8217;s a &#8220;lame duck.&#8221; What difference does it make? None. He&#8217;s still the president. The Senate is still functioning.<\/p>\n<p>So &#8230; let the president <em>propose<\/em> and let the Senate <em>dispose<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Senators can stop hiding behind the cheap canard that the &#8220;American people&#8221; deserve a voice.<\/p>\n<p>The people&#8217;s voice has been heard. Twice!<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What part of the American electoral process don&#8217;t U.S. Senate Republican leaders understand? Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said &#8220;the American people should decide&#8221; who gets to make the next appointment to the Supreme Court. Texas Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has echoed that sentiment. McConnell said the Judiciary &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=13120\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Americans have already decided who gets to choose<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13,14],"tags":[412,540,2526,3099,4213,5053],"class_list":["post-13120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-news","category-national-news","category-political-news","tag-antonin-scalia","tag-barack-obama","tag-john-cornyn","tag-mitch-mcconnell","tag-senate-judiciary-committee","tag-us-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13120"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13128,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13120\/revisions\/13128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}