Republicans’ Supreme Court Ploy Pays Off

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, hours after the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, that Republicans would refuse to hold a vote for any appointee put forward by President Barack Obama. Instead, McConnell and other Senate republicans said, that choice should be saved for the next president. That strategy has now paid off, after Donald Trump was elected this week. “Thank you, Majority Leader McConnell,” said Carrie Severino, head of the conservative Judicial Crisis Network. National exit polls indicate that 21 percent of voters had the Supreme Court in mind as they cast their ballots. In the wake of the election, observers will consider whether Obama’s choice to nominate Merrick Garland was a mistake. Obama aimed to nominate someone with broad support, hoping that putting forth a more moderate candidate would placate Republicans. Instead, the right obstructed the nomination for months, and Obama’s liberal base was not enthusiastic enough about Garland to make his nomination an issue during the presidential campaign. “But at the end of the day, once the Republican strategy jelled, it’s likely the senators would have been able to fight back a non-consensus candidate as well,” CNN writes.