The many ways Senate Republicans can block Obama’s Supreme Court nominee

[Lodestar]

Do Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his Republican caucus have the ability simply to ignore President Barack Obama’s nominee for the seat of Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court? The short answer is “yes.”

Though the Constitution imposes an obligation on the president to appoint a justice, and on the Senate to give or withhold its “advice and consent” regarding the nomination, in practice there is nothing Obama can do to overcome a politically driven Senate majority.

There is no constitutional mechanism for forcing the Senate to act. Its failure to do so poses the classic disagreement between the political branches that federal courts leave to the political process for resolution. Because Republicans control the Senate, they could remain in session for the remainder of Obama’s presidency, so a recess appointment would not be possible. The only real check on an obstructionist Senate is the political calculation of its membership.

cont'd
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2016/02/24/the-many-ways-senate-republicans-can-block-obamas-supreme-court-nominee/

[The Stranger]

1. And if the Democrats are ineffective to use the media to expose the Republicans on this,

to craft and circulate and execute in unison tight and effective talking points that can penetrate the filters of the corporate media, and the lethargy of hoi polloi, if they can't do that . . . .

. . . then nothing happens, as usual, and we all lose (again).

[avebury]

2. The problem is that the media is already in the pocket of the

Republicans and have been so for quite some time.