Supreme Court Filibuster: McConnell Leaves Door Wide Open

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Sunday that he would not rule out employing a filibuster to block Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee despite having vehemently opposed the use of the parliamentary procedure over judicial appointments four years ago.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, the Kentucky Republican said that, per the rules of the Senate, "all things are possible" when it came to the vote on Obama's choice for the Court. When reminded that he threatened to resort to the "nuclear option" when Democrats were threatening to filibuster George W. Bush's Court appointments, McConnell largely embraced his 180 degree turn in position.

"The Senate rejected my advice," he reminded host Chris Wallace. "And the Senate is a place that frequently operates on precedent. So I think the Senate deliberately decided not to take a position one way or the other. And as you know we did have a cloture vote on Justice Alito, which the President, by the way, opposed... So the President himself has indicated that all options are open, but I think it is way premature, Chris, to be predicting what kind of procedural moves will be taken. We haven't even seen the nomination yet."

As for the type of nominee he could support, McConnell said he expects someone of a liberal judicial bent to get the nod, but that Senate Republicans could back such a person provided they can "apply the law without partiality. Each federal judge takes an oath to apply the law to both the rich and the poor. Their personal views ought to be irrelevant."

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Comments

[BambooHarvester]

08:57 PM on 05/25/2009

Ahhhhh... If it's not Mr. Corpse Zombie he's really been dead for 20 yrs or so . . .
~

[rockyb26]

08:45 AM on 05/23/2009

hypocrite

[drumfetish]

11:48 PM on 05/22/2009

Get in the BOX.

[LostRiverLedger]

12:28 PM on 05/18/2009

So much for the 'up or down" vote so cherished for Roberts and Alito.....­.

[gintheb]

12:09 PM on 05/18/2009

That man in the picture there; is he alive?

[HowietheScreamer]

12:30 PM on 05/18/2009

He's been brain d e a d for decades, but yes.

[donttasemebro]

11:52 AM on 05/18/2009

Republican hypocrisy. Where is the news in that?

[OMG1109]

11:50 AM on 05/18/2009

I hope and pray in 2010, America, once again lets the Republican­s know exactly how they feel. Why do we even have the Republican party any more? Get rid of it/them and bring in another party that TRULY wants to help the American people!!

[pags62]

04:40 PM on 05/18/2009

With examples like dodd,jeffe­rson, frank, pelosi, dean, chris matthews, and keith olbermann the democratic party doesn't look all that appealing either!!

[stagebandman]

12:49 AM on 05/23/2009

With the exception of Jefferson, who should at least be out of a job, and at most in jail, I think your list is a pretty good line-up of strong Dems. Just because you may not agree with their politics, doesn' t mean they don't appeal to our base.

[Peaceisnecessary]

11:50 AM on 05/18/2009

The GOP is going to go nuts because President Obama is going to nominate a liberal female judge, but they will really lose it when the President nominates a female Latino judge. They would act as though the world is coming to an end. What will Lou Dobbs do? That hypocrite is married to a Latina, but appears to not like Latinos.

[rockyb26]

08:47 AM on 05/23/2009

i had no idea he was married to a latino woman. how does she tolerate him? i'm sure her family is not pleased

[MaximMaximus]

11:44 AM on 05/18/2009

The GOP has sunken to the bottom of the political barrel. How can a leader of the opposition party ever talk about filibuster­ing a nominee to any high office without having an official announceme­nt of the nomination­? This is bad politics.

[progressivepam]

11:25 AM on 05/18/2009

How sick are we of these idiots' hypocrisy? Enough already. Boys (and girls) time to take your balls and go home. Let people who want to SERVE the American people have the opportunit­y to do it.

[lvdragonlady]

11:15 AM on 05/18/2009

Oh look another OLD guy that can not decide what he is for and what he is against or what he wants to do or not want to do........­sheesh

[doug108]

11:09 AM on 05/18/2009

I love lawyers running our country. I think it's just the absolute best thing, to have our political class made up almost entirely of lawyers. It's good for the country in so many ways.

[madisonhack]

07:48 AM on 05/23/2009

Our legal system has it's founding in the Nuremberg city-state model. Those wise people didn't allow a lawyer to be part of governance because they saw an inherent conflict of interest in those that would create law and then fashion a livelihood from the same laws they had created.

[justoverit333]

10:50 AM on 05/18/2009

Hello? Earth to McConnell. Anyone home?
don't think so

[sueno]

09:52 AM on 05/18/2009

McConnell "handlers" slapped him around
and made him change his mind-
I guess Cheney and his crazy daughter Liz
must have threaten to water-boar­d him.

[SEQUOIABISON]

09:48 AM on 05/18/2009

I think Kentucky Senator McConnell probably worked at Churchill Downs before arriving at Congress, he is so adept at throwing around Horse Manure.