February 15, 2016 12:35 PM UTC

How Republicans Completely Botched Supreme Court Strategy

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: An astute on-background source corrects us:

Gardner isn’t hedging: he’s rationalizing. And it’s not Teflon Cory: it’s Con Man Cory.

—–

UPDATE: Sen. Cory Gardner jumps on the obstruction bandwagon:

NOW: @SenCoryGardner tells #9NEWS he supports McConnell on #SCOTUS, voters should "play a role" in selecting next justice in Nov. #COsen

— Brandon Rittiman (@BrandonRittiman) February 15, 2016

Well, sort of:

More Gardner: Obama "can either propose a nominee who can win over the maj. in the Senate, or defer his choice to the voters." #COsen #9NEWS

— Brandon Rittiman (@BrandonRittiman) February 15, 2016

Because that’s not always the way it is? Both sides await clarification on “Teflon Cory’s” non-position.

—–

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died on Saturday, setting off an entirely new round of political wrangling just as the 2016 Presidential election starts to really heat up. As we wrote in this space over the weekend, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell really backed Republicans into a corner when he took an unnecessarily hard-line stance on opposing any potential Supreme Court nominee put forth by President Obama.

In contrast to the bungled response from Republicans, President Obama issued a very simple, impossible-to-argue statement of his own when he said, “I plan to fulfill my constitutional duties to name a successor.”

Now that political pundits and the media have had time to digest the whirlwind of activity following Scalia’s unexpected death, the verdict is in: Republicans shot themselves in both feet. From “The Fix”:

Saying publicly — and on the same day that Scalia died — that replacing the justice was a non-starter, Senate Republicans sent a very clear message to the American voters: We aren’t even going to make a show of playing ball on this one…[Pols emphasis]

…With McConnell’s statement on Saturday night, the chance for Republicans to “win” on the Court nomination becomes remote.  Refusing to even take part in the process — even though that process could have easily yielded the GOP’s desired result — hands Obama and Senate Democrats a political cudgel to bash the GOP.

It’s an unforced error by Senate Republicans that will be difficult to mop up. And one that could cost them at the ballot box in November.

As Chris Cillizza explains for “The Fix,” it would have made infinitely more sense for Republicans to just hold their fire until President Obama offered up a name to succeed Scalia. At that point, Senate Republicans could have hemmed and hawed and gummed up the process long enough for the 2016 election to play out — without ever having to state publicly that they had no intention of giving the nominee a fair hearing.

Republicans have handed President Obama and Senate Democrats a no-lose scenario here. The GOP can’t say with a straight face that they have an issue with any one particular nominee, and Democrats can say that Republicans are openly refusing to follow through on their Constitutionally-mandated duties. As we wrote on Saturday:

It’s bad enough that the current Republican Congress has been historically worthless in terms of actual governing. Now Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to spread this impotence to the Supreme Court, too?

The next time McConnell or any of his GOP Senate colleagues start talking about the importance of “following the Constitution,” go ahead and stick a finger in each ear while softly humming to yourself.

If it makes you feel any better, Sen. McConnell, you won’t have nearly as much pressure when Senate Republicans are once again the minority party in 2017.