On a Late "Virtual Run" w/@DailyOutsider & Other Thoughts

After a personal "daycation", I spent the evening supporting some of the on-going daily initiatives with Daily Outsiders as I worked through the aftermath of Justice Scalia passing away.   Our team released a brief Notation on it earlier.

What was so disturbing to me personally was what I saw from the leading lights of the GOP starting with the US Senate Majority Leader:

The Senate should not confirm a new Supreme Court justice until we have a new president. (2/2)

— Senator Roy Blunt (@RoyBlunt) February 14, 2016

This is as the Daily Signal also noted this:

Sen. Chuck Grassley will do much to turn the tide of that coming conflict while serving as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. And the Iowa Republican has already signaled he won’t move any nominees out of committee.

“It’s been standard practice over the last 80 years to not confirm Supreme Court nominees during a presidential election year,” Grassley wrote in a statement. He continued:

Given the huge divide in the country, and the fact that this president, above all others, has made no bones about his goal to use the courts to circumvent Congress and push through his own agenda, it only makes sense that we defer to the American people who will elect a new president to select the next Supreme Court justice.

The traditional but unofficial Thurmond-Leahy rule dictates that the Senate halt all judicial confirmations in the last six months of a president’s time in office.

I made it a point of sending some personal tweets to Senator Blunt and Senator Shelby on it.    What I found so interesting is how Senator Grassley seems to deflect what Congress has done since 2009 to foster the very divide that he now notes.  It will quite an interesting fight to be witness to.     I found it quite interesting the statement by Speaker Ryan though (that I just picked up on my personal email):

F Statement on the Passing of Justice Antonin Scalia WASHINGTON – House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-OH) issued the following statement mourning the passing of U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia:   “Justice Scalia did more to advance originalism and judicial restraint than anyone in our time, and it all started with just two words: ‘I dissent.’ The passing of this brilliant jurist is a great loss, but his writings—with their plain language and constitutional moorings—will guide generations to come. A devout Catholic, he was fond of quoting St. Paul, who commanded us to ‘think soberly.’ That Justice Scalia did, always, and our republic is better for it. “I learned so much from this man. I knew him. I respected him. I looked up to him. We all did.Tonight, Janna and I offer our sympathy and prayers to Justice Scalia’s family.”

I truly hope all truly live up to St. Paul's admonition to "think soberly".  It appears from the discourse I have seen so far that this is far from the case.

Truly interesting times....