GOP tries to make up Supreme Court âtraditionâ that doesnât exist
02/19/16 12:48 PMâUPDATED 02/19/16 12:53 PM
By Steve Benen
Marco Rubio, like most Senate Republicans, intends to maintain a blockade against any Supreme Court nominee put forward by President Obama, regardless of the personâs qualifications. He even has a talking point heâs eager to share.
Yesterday, CNNâs Jake Tapper noted, for example, that Justice Anthony Kennedy was confirmed in President Reaganâs final year in office, but Rubio replied that doesnât count because the nomination was made a couple of months prior. The senator added:
âThis is a tradition that both parties have lived by for over 80 years where in the last year, if there was a vacancy in the last year of a lame duck president, you donât move forward.â
Rubio isnât the only one using the word âtraditionâ this way. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said on social media yesterday that President Obama should âfollow a tradition embraced by both parties and allow his successor to select the next Supreme Court justice.â
…………………………………….
There is no such âtradition.â In order for something to become âtraditional,â it has to happen routinely over the course of many years, and in this case, the number of instances in which both parties have agreed to leave a seat on the Supreme Court vacant for a year, waiting for an upcoming presidential election to come and go, is zero.
Dudette, numbers like this in the general will give us a President Trump or Cruz. This is very disappointing. Republicans seem to be more inspired to vote for racism and hate.
Thank you so much, Susanne, for sharing Charles Pierceâs incredible article. Itâs absolutely a must read for any one interested in understanding the origins of the current state of the Republican Party.
Bad enough that NV Republicans were being urged to vote in the Democratic caucus, but that Sanders supporters were also pushing it…that coupled with their attempted deception by posing as union workers…not to mention how often they have claimed endorsements that didnât exist…makes those “dead heat” poll results questionable as well.
The first thing you should know about Gerald Friedman, the economist suddenly at the center of a wonk-storm over Bernie Sandersâ policy proposals, is that he does not actually support Bernie Sanders for president.
He likes Sanders. And he has written, in consultation with the Sanders campaign, an analysis that projects Sandersâ ambitious domestic agenda would raise economic growth to as high as 5.3 percent per year, yielding sustained income gains for the middle class.
But Friedman, an economist at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, says heâll vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary.
Well well well…THIS is an interesting twist… https://t.co/Ict5iAx8aM
— Charles Gaba (@charles_gaba) February 19, 2025
Apple ID linked to terroristâs iPhone 5c changed while device was in government hands, Apple says
In response to a Department of Justice motion to compel Appleâs cooperation in the unlocking of an iPhone 5c used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists, company executives on Friday revealed the Apple ID passcode linked to that device was changed while the handset was in government hands, effectively blocking attempts to retrieve an iCloud backup…If the passcode was not changed, FBI officials might have been able to procure a backup of the data it is currently attempting to suss out of the phone itself, the company said.
This whole thing didnât make any sense, I think Apple wanted to give the feds the info inside the phone. But the feds wanted Apple to show them how access the phone. Now word comes out that the phone was in the fedâs possession and they put a new access code on the phone which was already open to them. Something doesnât sound right.
I remember sitting on the edge of the bed in disbelief, my wife and mother-in-law and my three-year-old son were in the living room screaming a joyful scream, this was the night of November 4, 2008. What drew me to Barack Obama was his coolness on the campaign trail, and to be honest it also infuriated me. The months leading up to election day I thought to myself âdonât this brother know that they coming for his ass, and he walks around like shit is alright.â Shit wasnât alright as far as I was concerned. I thought this brother needed to open up his mouth. Then a funny thing started to happen, one by one the old Democratic guard started dropping out of the race one by one. Richardson, Edwards, Dodd, and Biden, all big dogs in their own right had quit the race. I took a deep breath and thought to myself, this brother has a chance. Then there were two, Barack and Hillary, thatâs when I donated to Barackâs campaign. It was also the first campaign that I have ever donated money to. I thought if Barack can get pass the Clinton machine he can maybe win this thing, he did and the rest is history. In March President Obama and the First Lady will visit Cuba, let me repeat that, in March POTUS and FLOTUS will visit Cuba. I guess shit is indeed alright.
Same here. I have always voted, and always will, but Barack? Barack?? First time I ever gave $$ to a candidate. I remembered him at the DNC convention on TV, as this fresh-faced brother who gave one helluva speech and honestly, thought not one bit about him from that point on. Then I noticed him in a news story about Iowa. In early 2007, I found his local campaign office to donate a microwave and left as the volunteer recruiter. And that was still the primary! LOLOLOL We volunteered so much, they made a place for my son to do his school homework. I eventually wound up as official campaign staff for the 2012 campaign.
Watching his 2004DNC convention speech for John Kerry, everyone in the room with was awestruck and when he finished we all said at same time “that dude is gonâ be President some day. 4 years later BOOM! It was a new & better world and everything became possible!
I remember that like it was yesterday!! We screamed so loud when we figured out who each other was!! The other folks were looking at us like “”What in the world???” :D:D:D
South Carolina voters are getting misleading instructions about voter id https://t.co/7WCepfxYkm pic.twitter.com/HiohbXp7Pj
— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) February 20, 2025
SUMTER, SC â Voters in South Carolina who do not have photo identification can still vote in the upcoming presidential primary. But elections officials and state lawmakers do not want them to know that.
South Carolinaâs voter ID is far less strict than many of the other 35 states that have passed laws to require voters to show identification at the polls. Because its law was passed while the U.S. Department of Justice was still required to approve changes to its election laws, the law allows anyone without an ID to vote if they can have a âreasonable impedimentâ to obtaining ID.
That âimpedimentâ can include anything from family responsibilities to a lack of transportation or disability.
Hey Prettyfoot!! I believe this is some FOOLYWANG!! I would have crawled over hot coals and cut glass to get in the White House for a meeting with PBO!! Seriously, if she didnât have the $$, just say so. I would have to beg, borrow or steal to get what was needed to be in that meeting!!! LOLOL :D
Read yesterday that she “claimed” that there would not be a meeting but that it was just a photo-op for PBO of which she would not be a part. Was glad to see soon after that there was in deed a meeting and the participants thought that it went well.
I am so thankful for TOD. My fear the night before the Nevada caucus is so great. Will this country really turn its back on this President and vote for old white men who so disrespect PBO. I am scared for my party and my country. Thank you all for being here.
i remember in August-September of 2012…it was all over the press…the pundits….and the polls were declaring that the President would not win re-election…the President said not to listen to the pundits and the polls …to just keep on making phone calls…just keep on knocking on doors..so ignore the polls…except the polls on election day
Thank you PF, I too remember that. I do have deep hope but without PBO on the ballot the haters have come out in full force to erase his legacy. Not at the point of doing the work nationally yet so I feel out of the loop. I am ready to work on local races.
I definitely think thereâs backlash from people on the Right AND Left who never wanted to see PBO in office.
Thatâs another ugly similarity between any of the GOP and Team Bernie: they want to undo what this president has done.
Those who have supported PBO need to turn out in force to 1) get HIllary to the GE; and 2) make sure she wins the GE. It feels a little weird to say that, but what a difference a Sanders candidacy can make!
Yay PBO!
Congrats Dudette!
Thanks J4O! Congrats to you! Good to see ya! đ
Awesome! Congrats, Dudette. Canât wait for the travel photos from Cuba.
Thanks JF! Iâm looking forward to it too!
Hi Dudette! Congrats. :-D
Hey sw! Thanks!
Congratulations on first, Ms. Dudette! :)
Thank you Blog Goddess! đ
Thank you NW!
Nerdy always ROCKS this joint! Donâtcha just â¤ď¸ her!
Congrats Dudette on First and J4O on Furst :-)
:)
Thank ya mâam!
:D :D :D
:)
I can NOT wait to see the First Couple in Cuba..it will be EPIC!!
Totally EPIC!
I am beyond thrilled that FLOTUS is going as well. The RW is going to have a fit at the sight of our dynamic duo in Cuba.
GOP tries to make up Supreme Court âtraditionâ that doesnât exist
02/19/16 12:48 PMâUPDATED 02/19/16 12:53 PM
By Steve Benen
Marco Rubio, like most Senate Republicans, intends to maintain a blockade against any Supreme Court nominee put forward by President Obama, regardless of the personâs qualifications. He even has a talking point heâs eager to share.
Yesterday, CNNâs Jake Tapper noted, for example, that Justice Anthony Kennedy was confirmed in President Reaganâs final year in office, but Rubio replied that doesnât count because the nomination was made a couple of months prior. The senator added:
âThis is a tradition that both parties have lived by for over 80 years where in the last year, if there was a vacancy in the last year of a lame duck president, you donât move forward.â
Rubio isnât the only one using the word âtraditionâ this way. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said on social media yesterday that President Obama should âfollow a tradition embraced by both parties and allow his successor to select the next Supreme Court justice.â
…………………………………….
There is no such âtradition.â In order for something to become âtraditional,â it has to happen routinely over the course of many years, and in this case, the number of instances in which both parties have agreed to leave a seat on the Supreme Court vacant for a year, waiting for an upcoming presidential election to come and go, is zero.
Thatâs Karl Rove messaging at work.
Send the memo to everyone with the talking points, and get them on the air to repeat, repeat, repeat.
Arrrrgh! Damn Republicans wonât be happy til folks are just ducking for cover from flying bullets 24/7.
Dudette, numbers like this in the general will give us a President Trump or Cruz. This is very disappointing. Republicans seem to be more inspired to vote for racism and hate.
I think youâre right COS. Itâs so frustrating.
Yet, Bernie has a “revolution” going on……
I so wish we had a strong full time DNC Chairperson whoâs number one priority was turning out the vote for 2016!
Me too! Itâs just criminal how ineffective DWS has been and still sitting in that chair! Makes me so angry I could spit.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/little-girl-crying-obama-wont-be-president_us_56c772f2e4b0ec6725e285fa?section=politics
THIS IS HOW I FEEL TOOđ˘
My president is RE-DEFINING “lame duck” HAHAHAHAHA!! :D
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a42254/lee-atwater-grave-south-carolina/
Great piece from Charles Pierce on this topic.
Thank you so much, Susanne, for sharing Charles Pierceâs incredible article. Itâs absolutely a must read for any one interested in understanding the origins of the current state of the Republican Party.
More eloquence from our President:
The Plot Thickensssss
Bad enough that NV Republicans were being urged to vote in the Democratic caucus, but that Sanders supporters were also pushing it…that coupled with their attempted deception by posing as union workers…not to mention how often they have claimed endorsements that didnât exist…makes those “dead heat” poll results questionable as well.
Itâs increasingly clear to me that Bernie Sanders and his supporters aredetermined to destroy the Democratic Party.
I believe that too Nath!
I agree with you….
Ha! Was just coming to post this. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in White House this weekend. :-)
Oh, my, what a treat that would be!
Look how thick that book is…YIKES
Inorite? Daaaang!
The first thing you should know about Gerald Friedman, the economist suddenly at the center of a wonk-storm over Bernie Sandersâ policy proposals, is that he does not actually support Bernie Sanders for president.
He likes Sanders. And he has written, in consultation with the Sanders campaign, an analysis that projects Sandersâ ambitious domestic agenda would raise economic growth to as high as 5.3 percent per year, yielding sustained income gains for the middle class.
But Friedman, an economist at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, says heâll vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary.
Apple ID linked to terroristâs iPhone 5c changed while device was in government hands, Apple says
In response to a Department of Justice motion to compel Appleâs cooperation in the unlocking of an iPhone 5c used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists, company executives on Friday revealed the Apple ID passcode linked to that device was changed while the handset was in government hands, effectively blocking attempts to retrieve an iCloud backup…If the passcode was not changed, FBI officials might have been able to procure a backup of the data it is currently attempting to suss out of the phone itself, the company said.
The plot thickens!
This whole thing didnât make any sense, I think Apple wanted to give the feds the info inside the phone. But the feds wanted Apple to show them how access the phone. Now word comes out that the phone was in the fedâs possession and they put a new access code on the phone which was already open to them. Something doesnât sound right.
I remember sitting on the edge of the bed in disbelief, my wife and mother-in-law and my three-year-old son were in the living room screaming a joyful scream, this was the night of November 4, 2008. What drew me to Barack Obama was his coolness on the campaign trail, and to be honest it also infuriated me. The months leading up to election day I thought to myself âdonât this brother know that they coming for his ass, and he walks around like shit is alright.â Shit wasnât alright as far as I was concerned. I thought this brother needed to open up his mouth. Then a funny thing started to happen, one by one the old Democratic guard started dropping out of the race one by one. Richardson, Edwards, Dodd, and Biden, all big dogs in their own right had quit the race. I took a deep breath and thought to myself, this brother has a chance. Then there were two, Barack and Hillary, thatâs when I donated to Barackâs campaign. It was also the first campaign that I have ever donated money to. I thought if Barack can get pass the Clinton machine he can maybe win this thing, he did and the rest is history. In March President Obama and the First Lady will visit Cuba, let me repeat that, in March POTUS and FLOTUS will visit Cuba. I guess shit is indeed alright.
Same here. I have always voted, and always will, but Barack? Barack?? First time I ever gave $$ to a candidate. I remembered him at the DNC convention on TV, as this fresh-faced brother who gave one helluva speech and honestly, thought not one bit about him from that point on. Then I noticed him in a news story about Iowa. In early 2007, I found his local campaign office to donate a microwave and left as the volunteer recruiter. And that was still the primary! LOLOLOL We volunteered so much, they made a place for my son to do his school homework. I eventually wound up as official campaign staff for the 2012 campaign.
Watching his 2004DNC convention speech for John Kerry, everyone in the room with was awestruck and when he finished we all said at same time “that dude is gonâ be President some day. 4 years later BOOM! It was a new & better world and everything became possible!
I LOVE that he didnât wait, didnât seek permission. He was on his own clock. And in a hurry to get things done. I was with him all the way.
The right man for the right time!
I was all for him, but didnât believe the country was ready for him. Thank goodness for all us that he knew! đ
during the 2012 campaign ..is when i met Ison
I remember that like it was yesterday!! We screamed so loud when we figured out who each other was!! The other folks were looking at us like “”What in the world???” :D :D :D
hahahahahahaha
Iâm STILL waiting to meet you both…
allllright now…smilin big time
Love reading your words…Don…are you a famous writer…appearing here at TOD under an assumed name…smilin
I hear you, Don.
I hear you.
Walking the walk.
I â¤ď¸ My President!
Me too, me too <3 <3
By now, would anyone expect less from this great man?
SUMTER, SC â Voters in South Carolina who do not have photo identification can still vote in the upcoming presidential primary. But elections officials and state lawmakers do not want them to know that.
South Carolinaâs voter ID is far less strict than many of the other 35 states that have passed laws to require voters to show identification at the polls. Because its law was passed while the U.S. Department of Justice was still required to approve changes to its election laws, the law allows anyone without an ID to vote if they can have a âreasonable impedimentâ to obtaining ID.
That âimpedimentâ can include anything from family responsibilities to a lack of transportation or disability.
You know itâs on purpose.
Of course it is.
No contest!
I so want to be on the floor screaming and crying.
I see what he did there. Heh.
Pity..that she feels this way…but it was good that others did not
Hey Prettyfoot!! I believe this is some FOOLYWANG!! I would have crawled over hot coals and cut glass to get in the White House for a meeting with PBO!! Seriously, if she didnât have the $$, just say so. I would have to beg, borrow or steal to get what was needed to be in that meeting!!! LOLOL :D
yanno…i find it fascinating…that she rejected a meeting with the President
Read yesterday that she “claimed” that there would not be a meeting but that it was just a photo-op for PBO of which she would not be a part. Was glad to see soon after that there was in deed a meeting and the participants thought that it went well.
I am so thankful for TOD. My fear the night before the Nevada caucus is so great. Will this country really turn its back on this President and vote for old white men who so disrespect PBO. I am scared for my party and my country. Thank you all for being here.
i remember in August-September of 2012…it was all over the press…the pundits….and the polls were declaring that the President would not win re-election…the President said not to listen to the pundits and the polls …to just keep on making phone calls…just keep on knocking on doors..so ignore the polls…except the polls on election day
Thank you PF, I too remember that. I do have deep hope but without PBO on the ballot the haters have come out in full force to erase his legacy. Not at the point of doing the work nationally yet so I feel out of the loop. I am ready to work on local races.
I definitely think thereâs backlash from people on the Right AND Left who never wanted to see PBO in office.
Thatâs another ugly similarity between any of the GOP and Team Bernie: they want to undo what this president has done.
Those who have supported PBO need to turn out in force to 1) get HIllary to the GE; and 2) make sure she wins the GE. It feels a little weird to say that, but what a difference a Sanders candidacy can make!
Agree Sandy, we have to turn out in force.
Absolutely!
Better not be any shenanigans going with those registrations!
Pretty damn close.
too close…back up!!
I really hope he was swatted back, flash.
I know. I donât like it! Too many crazies out there.
This man is NEVER going to give up.
Ainât no “lame” in this Presidentâs game.
I think I have to agree:
LOL!
New Post.
http://theobamadiary.com/2016/02/19/the-president-and-first-ladys-day-29/