The sudden death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia left politicos on both sides of the aisle scrambling; just moments after his passing was announced, all eyes looked ahead to his successor.
In frustratingly familiar fashion, a wealth of leading Republicans pledged to thwart President Obama’s eventual nominee. Arguing that Obama already made two appointments during his tenure — Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — a number of GOP senators and pundits postured it was only right that Scalia’s successor come from the next president.
The transparency of that argument is galling. If the tables were turned — and we had a Republican president in office the last eight years who made two Supreme Court appointments — Republicans would surely be singing a different tune. The speed at which they jumped to jam through a Republican-backed nominee would be record-breaking.
That dichotomy makes the obstinacy all the more vexing. Obama has promised that he will not be swayed from proposing a candidate, taking to task Republicans who are committed to obstructing the process.
Among those is Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
Toomey announced this week that he’s backing the plan to block Obama’s nominee, telling the Morning Call that Obama’s pick “will be rejected by the Senate.”
That stalwart approach reflects the worst parts of our system of governing: A process that it supposed to be bipartisan in nature has devolved to the foot-stomping, breath-holding nature of a first-grade tantrum.
That Toomey supports such a tactic isn’t surprising: He’s long been resolutely opposed to LGBT rights and has put partisan politics far above the pursuit of progress.
This situation has arisen as several Democrats are vying for the nomination to take on Toomey this fall. Toomey’s reaction to Scalia’s death highlights the importance of the Senate race. This could be an opportunity to demonstrate that Pennsylvanians expect our elected officials to put their constitutional duties ahead of political wrangling.