SCOTUS, lies and videotape https://t.co/M6thmjWBhh
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 24, 2016
As is his wont, President Obama responded by giving the nation a self-serving lecture about constitutional proprieties. His courtiers cried out that Republican obstruction was unprecedented, even though it wasn't. They even hinted at racism as a motive. In other words, this ersatz drama has been par for the course.
Then up popped old C-Span clips. One after another, Democratic Sens. Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden were revealed to have argued, as though from profoundly-held principle, exactly the opposite of what they are saying now. There they are, in all their glory, thundering that the Senate has no obligation to take up a president's nominee. Even Barack Obama, during that short time when he put together a gossamer-thin Senate record, once tried to block a vote on a (Republican) president's Supreme Court nominee.
When the parties accuse each other of cynically and selectively reversing past opinions on court nominations, it's tempting to dismiss the back and forth as immaterial political ping-pong. But that would be to ignore the Democrats' impressive dominance of this sport.
