Pat Toomey set off a chorus of condemnation from his constituents and the media this week when he said no matter the nominee, he would oppose filling the vacancy on the Supreme Court. The shameless partisanship underlying his position was proven by a series of evasive and historically inaccurate statements he issued to defend himself. Yesterday, Toomey made matters even worse by admitting he thinks the “qualifications of the candidate” are irrelevant and having a crippled Supreme Court for the next year is “not that big a deal.”
Here’s a roundup of what folks in Pennsylvania are reading about Pat Toomey’s week:
PennLive: Republicans might not like it, but Obama has the obligation to name Justice Scalia’s replacement: “There is no precedent for the Senate to block action on a Supreme Court nomination for nearly a full year. More to the point, there is no precedent for the Senate to announce opposition to a Supreme Court nomination before it has even been made.”
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Toomey cites non-existent precedent for not confirming SCOTUS nominee: “But Toomey, who is up for re-election, said it is ‘common for vacancies that arise on the Supreme Court (in the final year of a presidency) to await the outcome of the next election’…That’s the standard Republican line at the moment, but it’s also just not so.”
Philadelphia Daily News: Scalia’s death and the new American Civil War: “There is no drama over the outcome over the next 11 months; Senate Republicans have all but guaranteed total obstruction — a shocking breach of its Constitutional responsibility… Some Republicans claim history is on their side — which is utter baloney.”
The Times of Chester County: Scalia’s death puts Toomey in an impossible position
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: After Scalia: Fill the vacancy with a scholarly centrist: “The demand by Republican candidates and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that President Barack Obama refrain from nominating a successor to Justice Scalia, 11 months before the president leaves office, is a shameless attempt at obstructionism…This would be another form of government shutdown — entirely unnecessary and in defiance of doing the people’s business.”
Philadelphia Inquirer: Antonin Scalia and the limits of ideology: “There is no precedent or principle that should prevent a duly elected president from making a nomination to the Supreme Court, or the Senate from considering it, with nearly a year left in their terms.”
The Scranton Times-Tribune: Nominate and confirm: “Self-serving politics is the only available excuse that Mr. McConnell and his allies could offer for refusing to engage in their constitutionally required advice-and-consent function until it suits them. And it is politically idiotic to do so….Seven GOP incumbents, including Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, won their 2010 races by narrow margins in states that President Obama carried easily in 2012. Failing to confirm a sound candidate would further energize the Democratic base. Perhaps the best shot the Republicans have of hanging on to the Senate is by doing their jobs.”
Allentown Morning Call: Records don’t reflect Pat Toomey’s claim on election-year court nominees: “In arguing that the next president and not Barack Obama should replace Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court, Sen. Pat Toomey echoed other Republicans in saying election-year vacancies typically are treated differently than non-election years…But a review of past Supreme Court vacancies suggests otherwise, yielding no evidence that a president has declined to nominate a new justice during his final year in office.”
The Scranton Times-Tribune: Toomey must stop voting: “There is no grand principle behind the Republican senators’ defiance of the public will. It is naked obstruction. Mr. Toomey should desist.”
Sunbury Daily Item: Failure to perform duty: “Our own senator, Pat Toomey, argues with contorted logic that preemptively rejecting any judicial nomination is somehow what the framers of the Constitution intended by ‘advice and consent.’ The Republicans’ refusal to follow the Constitution in ‘advice and consent’ of judges exposes the party’s disregard for the Constitution.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: If the Senate shirks its duty, voters will have the last word: “If Republican senators in 2016 refuse to perform their duties, this November they may not only find Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton as the incoming president, but also that Republican senators like Pat Toomey are out of a job and the 2017 Senate is back in the hands of the Democrats.”
Allentown Morning Call: GOP senators act like obstructionists: “Our own Sen. Pat Toomey later weighed in, repeating the Republican meme that it is common for presidents in their last year to leave the judicial selection to the next president. This claim had been examined by historians and found to be false.”
Express-Times: Toomey ignores Constitution on court appointment: “Toomey has disqualified himself from office by failing to follow the Constitution he swore to uphold.”
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Toomey clear on Scalia successor: GOP Senators don’t care about qualifications alone: “U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, doesn’t want to mislead people. When it comes to filling a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, politics trumps qualifications.”
Philadelphia Daily News: Republicans in denial about Supreme Court vacancy: “In a statement, Toomey said: ‘Given that we are already into the presidential election process and that the Supreme Court appointment is for a lifetime, it makes sense to give the American people a more direct say in this critical decision’…With all due respect to Toomey, the American people have already had a direct say. Twice. They elected Barack Obama to be president of the United States.”
PoliticsPA: 2/19 Ups & Downs: “Yesterday, though, the Senator hurt himself by arguing against any confirmation hearings and seemingly admitting that this was about more than the candidate’s qualifications. His assertion that an 11-month vacancy on the Court would not be ‘that big a deal’ was a gaffe that his opponents are already capitalizing on and one that they will likely bring up innumerable times throughout the year.”
###