The country lost a great jurist on Friday, with the death of U S Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
In her final days she told her granddaughter: "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed."
When Associate Justice Antonin Scalia died on February 13, 2016, 8 1/2 months before a presidential election, Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said of the Court vacancy:
March 20, 2016: McConnell tells Fox News Sunday, "The Senate has a role to play here. The president nominates, we decide to confirm. We think the important principle in the middle of this presidential year is that the American people need to weigh in and decide who's going to make this decision. Not this lame duck president on the way out the door, but the next president."
President Obama's nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, never had so much as a Senate hearing, much less a vote.
I am sure the Senate Republican majority will adhere to their same guiding principles with the death of Justice Ginsburg, a month and a half before the election.
They will, and we will have the vacancy filled before election day.
Sadly, it is power first, principle be damned.
I see campaign signs that say "America First". Sadly, it is party first, and America is left behind in the dust.
I used to be a Republican.
Rest in Peace Justice Ginsburg and God Help America.
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