As Obama Moves To Replace Scalia, The Press (Once Again) Enables Radical GOP Obstruction

[kpete]

Note that Republicans and their conservative fans in the media aren't telling Obama that a particular nominee he selects to become the next justice is flawed and will likely be rejected after hearings are held. Republicans are telling Obama that there's no point in even bothering to make a selection because the Senate will reject anyone the president names. Period. The seat will remain vacant for an entire year. That is the definition of radical. But the press still looks away.

Again and again, the press has depicted Obama's expected action in the wake of Scalia's death as being highly controversial or partisan, when in fact it's Republicans who are acting in erratic ways by categorically announcing they'll refuse to even consider Obama's next Supreme Court pick.

The sad part is this type of media acquiescence has become a hallmark of the Obama era. Republicans have routinely obliterated Beltway precedents when it comes to granting Obama the leeway that previous presidents were given by their partisan foes in Congress.

Yet each step along the way, journalists have pulled back, refusing to detail the seismic shift taking place. Instead, journalists have portrayed the obstruction as routine, and often blamed Obama for not being able to avoid the showdowns.

Today's Republican Party is acting in a way that defies all historic norms. We saw it with the GOP's gun law obstructionism, the sequester obstructionism, the government shutdown obstructionism, the Chuck Hagel confirmation obstructionism, the Susan Rice Secretary of State obstructionism, the Hurricane Sandy emergency relief obstructionism, and the consistent obstruction of judicial nominees.

For years under Obama, Republicans have systematically destroyed Beltway norms and protocols, denying the president his traditional latitude to govern and make appointments. It's sad that in Obama's final year in office, the press is still turning a blind eye to the GOP's radical nature.


MORE:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/02/15/as-obama-moves-to-replace-scalia-the-press-enab/208599

[blm]

1. Corporate media is pushing the idea that the SC is SUPPOSED to be tipped far right permanently.

All of the 'radical' judicial activism of the last 40 years has come from the far right fascists put on the court by global fascist presidents.

[world wide wally]

2. Every time we turn around the GOP and right wing media are creating another Constitutional crisis

It has gone beyond increasing ratings.
And how can the GOP even sell the idea that they love the Constitution so much when they blatantly spit on it on national TV? Have Americans gone completely brain dead?

[world wide wally]

3. Every time we turn around the GOP and right wing media are creating another Constitutional crisis

It has gone beyond increasing ratings.
And how can the GOP even sell the idea that they love the Constitution so much when they blatantly spit on it on national TV? Have Americans gone completely brain dead?

[Hortensis]

4. Look at who own the 6 huge media conglomerates.

Want keep your job, or any job, in journalism, an incredible shrinking field anyway? The safest place is in the middle of the pack, and the pack only exists because it goes along.

The money the ultrawealthy donate to campaigns is A TINY FRACTION of all the money they have been spending to alter the way we think. By far most of their political action money does not go to candidates and elections at all, it works behind the scenes using charitable foundations as fronts.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

5. The Republicans have turned politics into war.

They have made compromise impossible. The only way to win now is with overwhelming force. The old thinking of the third-way Democrats is useless. Sanders is correct - A political revolution is our last best option.

[spanone]

7. this am i turned to m$nbc and the headline was: Supreme Court Battle

they are useless

[C_U_L8R]

6. It might be a good time

to push some of these issues before the Supreme Court (just sayin : -)