The MoveOn mountebanks have sent out a link to a video featuring Robert Reich commenting on the current Supreme Court nominee situation and the Senate’s advice. You remember Mr. Reich, the wee fella in the Clinton administration (the last one, not the looming one). He makes his case with his general thesis being: Those dastardly Republicans claim to cherish the Constitution, but in reality they are undermining it by their actions in the Senate. They “don’t want to fulfill their Constitutional responsibility”. Harrumph, harrumph! If he could reach the desk top, he’d be pounding it I’m sure.
Now, the video is amusing because the medium he uses to make his case is a cartoon. Which is very prosodic in the poetic sense of the word — something is doing what it is saying. That he’s using a cartoon to convey his cartoonish arguments is fantastic. Say what you want about Mr. Reich, but the fella knows his audience and how to reach them. Keep the syllable count low, the words simple, and use bright colorful pictures. Smiley faces for good. Frowny faces, sad. Meany faces, bad.
The little guy slings his first arrow against those meany obstructionist Republicans saying that the Constitution, “doesn’t say that a President can’t appoint in his final year in office.” Alas, it’s a flaccid, limp arrow. Not only does it not hit the target, it doesn’t really escape the bow. For it’s a strawman. No one is making the claim that the Constitution does say that.
He then releases his second noodle that’s just as wobbly as the first and says that the Constitution “doesn’t give the Senate leader the right to delay and obstruct the rest of the senate from voting on a President’s nominee.” His tiny hands (sorry Trump) are clutching at straws. Again, no one is making the claim that the Constitution does give that right. The Constitution is silent on Senate rules. It doesn’t speak to Senate rules at all. It’s silent. Like Reich and the MoveOn misanthropes on Hillary’s negligence with respect to classified material, that silent.
The dwarf’s final fling is by far the weakest, most pathetic, and betrays desperation because of its bald-faced dishonesty. He finishes his argument by saying, “In refusing to vote, or even hold a hearing on the President’s nominee to the Supreme Court, the GOP is abdicating its constitutional responsibility. It’s not doing its job.”
This is simply factually incorrect. The Senate is doing its job. Its job in this case is “Advice and Consent”. And, I couldn’t boil it down quite like what I read somewhere, this Senate’s advice to the President is very simple: “Not now. Not you”.
Done.
