Public Comment

Immediately after President Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate would not consider the nomination until after the next President is inaugurated, in ten months. McConnell holds some off-hand remark made two decades ago by Democrat Joe Biden, then Senate leader, in such high regard that he uplifts those words into what he calls "The Biden Rule," claiming it is more important than the Constitution. Really? Should such churlish cynicism pass as responsible government?  

McConnell knows very well that the Constitution gives the people responsibility for choosing a President every four years, not three years and two months, and that the President is responsible for fulfilling his duties for a full four years, not three years and two months.  

McConnell vowed to obstruct everything our President would attempt to do, immediately after the voters elected him, twice. Republicans like McConnell have tried to shut down our government services, they threatened to bankrupt the full faith and credit of our country's debt obligations, and now they want to grind up our highest court of Justice with their partisan politics.  

Maybe responsible voters will replace these irresponsible Republican Senators with Democrats in November. Meanwhile, McConnell should evoke the so-called Biden Rule to recuse himself from the Senate until after the voters express their preference.