FarSky wrote:
Scalia was known for his fondness of the give-and-take of the court, his view that there should be a variety of opinions, and for his ability to not let differences of opinion hurt his relationships with other justices. He got along well with all of them, and it's entirely possible he backed Kagan because she was fairly young for a justice and he thought she'd be fun to debate with. Scalia, I think, was well aware of the problems of groupthink and probably would have been terrified of a court where he won everything 9-0. I have seen writing claiming Scalia was at his best when dissenting rather than winning.
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Out of curiosity, what (aside from bald-faced partisanship) is the Republican argument that President Obama shouldn't name a successor? That's literally in the Constitution. I mean, it's nakedly partisan, but usually people try to couch things like this in at least a see-through cloak of legitimacy. Obama is still president for an entire year, after all.
I think you may be asking the wrong people because I think the only answer any of us will give is yes - it's naked partisanship, and it's not even tactically smart naked partisanship. It's one of those moves that makes people like me facepalm and weep for the idiocy of people who make their living being party officials. I can't, for the life of me, figure out why they would make a move that so obviously smacks of desperation and panic. It's like a bunch of 14 year olds are running the place or something.
The ONLY thing I can figure is that maybe they hope Cruz and/or Trump will take up the same call and tarnish themself? People are more likely to remember what a candidate said than "the RNC". If so, it's a remarkable long shot, and frankly, I don't even put any stock in this theory, it's just all I can come up with. Really, I got nothin'.
If they want to stop an Obama appointee they're on much stronger ground getting the Senate to do it, since the Senate is well within its own rights.