Harry Reid Joins Ted Cruz In Political Maneuvering After Justice Scalia’s Death
Harry Reid, the Democrat Senator and Minority Leader from Nevada, has wasted no time in political maneuvering in the wake of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s untimely death Saturday.
While not the first to have his voice heard — that distinction goes to GOP presidential primary candidate Ted Cruz — Reid does take an antithetical approach.
Cruz called for President Obama to refrain from naming a successor to Scalia’s place on the U.S. Supreme Court, but Harry Reid believes that Obama should not only name that successor, but do so at once.
“The President can and should send the Senate a nominee right away,” Reid said. “The Senate has a responsibility to fill vacancies as soon as possible.”
Reid also said that not doing so would be “unprecedented in recent history for SCOTUS to go year with vacancy… And shameful abdication of our constitutional responsibility.”
While Cruz has taken much heat for his comments, it is difficult to see how Harry Reid should get a free pass. Reid said in no way that he was responding to a specific call from the GOP, only that President Obama needed to get on board with naming a successor right away.
The move drew ire from some of his followers on Twitter.
@SenatorReid @ATPinDC body isn’t even cold and dems licking their chops to get a lib on the bench…geesh
— Jeff W (@JeffWoodsDC) February 13, 2016
@SenatorReid @sluggoD54 Harry Reid just confirmed he is an a**hole, and we cannot and will not stand for packing the court. NO MORE FDR’s
— CoachDB181 (@coachdb181) February 14, 2016
Reid was not alone on the left, however, in his political maneuvering.
Hillary Clinton seized immediately on the Republican push from Cruz and fellow primary candidate Ben Carson to stall the appointment of a new justice. She did so with a series of tweets that called it “outrageous” the Republicans would react in such a manner.
“If anyone needed a reminder of how important it is to take back the Senate & hold onto the White House,” she continued, “look at the Supreme Court.”
She also reminded Republicans that “Barack Obama is the President of the United States until January 20, 2017 — that is a fact” whether the GOP “like it or not.”
The barrage concluded with these two tweets.
“Elections have consequences. The president has a responsibility to nominate a new justice and the Senate has a responsibility to vote.”
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 14, 2016
“All of us Democrats have a responsibility to make sure a Republican doesn’t win and rip away all the progress we’ve made.” —Hillary in CO
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 14, 2016
The problem with what Clinton and Harry Reid (and Carson and Cruz as well) are doing, is that they are making the assumption justices do and should govern by political beliefs rather than what is written in law.
The implication when Cruz calls for a moratorium on appointing justices or Clinton calls for voting Democrat because that allows her party to load the Supreme Court with ideologically like-minded people, is that the judicial branch is as politically corrupt and deviant as politicians themselves.
If the country ever gets to that point, no matter which side you’re on, then it would essentially be the beginning of the end. Unfortunately, neither Cruz nor Clinton is wrong in their assumptions.
For too long, the Court has made political decisions instead of legal judgments, and if it is allowed to go on, then the rights of people and the rules on which the country is based will be fluid instead of inalienable.
But what do you think, readers? Are Clinton and Cruz and Carson and Harry Reid equally guilty of playing politics with a man’s death? Sound off in the comments section.
[Image via Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock.com]
