Obama Derangement Syndrome: GOP's Conditioned Reflex

Scalia's corpse had barely reached room temperature before this happened:

The U.S. Senate should not act to fill the sudden Supreme Court vacancy opened up by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia until after President Obama departs office, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement Saturday.

The President has eleven months left in his term. He's going to nominate somebody, and I don't have to do any research at all to know that.

The GOP's default reaction to oppose anything President Obama says is leading them to make some very dangerous bets, as in "bad for them." By vowing to block any nominee, they are betting that they can win the presidency this Fall and retain control of the Senate. Neither are sure things. The Republicans should reflect on what sort of justice President Sanders would nominate, especially if the Democrats win back he Senate. If GOP senators tried to block it, there would be almost irresistible pressure on the Democrats to invoke "the nuclear option" (removing the filibuster for judicial nominees) and putting Sanders's choice on the Court.

Worse, the GOP will make the case, to Democratic and Independent voters, why they should vote for the Democratic candidate. The Clinton Campaign has been trying to motivate voters by telling them that keeping control of who gets nominated to the Supreme Court is vital. Absent a recent nomination fight, that's a pretty wonkish argument and it doesn't play very well. But with a bloody nomination fight and the spectacle of the GOP opposing anybody that is nominated, it's an argument that will sing.

If the Republicans were smart, they'd do what they could to take the issue of control of the courts off the board. They would work with Obama to find a candidate that is of center-right leanings, one that is palatable, even if barely, to both sides. Oh, their base would scream, again, about being betrayed, but so what? Nobody cares. They're going to turn out in this election, anyway. The real question is whether the Democratic base will turn out and that's open to debate at the present. Blacks don't like Sanders very much and the younger, not-well-off Democrats don't care for Clinton. But give them a bloody, high-profile example of GOP obstructionism and that may not matter much.

However, Republicans, at least right now, are choosing this hill to die on.

I don't think that's very smart of them. But I never said they were smart.