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Blocking an up-or-down confirmation vote strips away the only actual oversight we have under the Constitution, namely the prospect of uncomfortable publicizing
by dctoedt 8y ago
Blocking an up-or-down confirmation vote strips away the only actual oversight we have under the Constitution, namely the prospect of uncomfortable publicizing of a senator's voting record during his or her next reelection bid — or when s/he runs for president. (I read once that whenever any senator looks in the mirror, s/he sees a future president.)
- tptacek 8y agoIs this really a materially relevant argument? Does anyone have any illusions on where any of the 2016 GOP Senators stood on Garland? They all effectively cast a "no" vote. There's nobody in the country who thinks otherwise. Even The Daily Caller wouldn't put that argument forward. So what's the harm to the Constitution? Bills have been not-getting-out-of-committee for a very long time prior to the McConnell blockade, and you can easily make an argument that killing things in committee is actually more harmful to transparency than what McConnell did --- whatever else you might say about the blockade, it was pretty transparent!