President Barack Obama and Merrick Garland, his nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy, head back to the Oval Office after his introduction at the White House on Wednesday. Garland is currently chief judge for U.S. Court of Appeals D.C. Circuit. Behind is Vice President Joe Biden. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)President Barack Obama on Wednesday advanced Merrick B. Garland as his nominee for the nation’s 113th Supreme Court justice seat, and called on Republicans who’ve said they will not give a hearing to any Obama nominee to put aside partisan rhetoric and consider the centrist appeals court judge who is highly regarded throughout Washington.
The president introduced Garland in the Rose Garden and called him exceptionally qualified to serve in the seat formerly held by the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Of course, Scalia’s body had barely cooled after he died in February before Republican leaders were advising Obama to just take a nap until January. They said they would not approve any nomination he made, they wouldn’t even meet the nominee – let alone take a vote.
Majority Leader and Sen. Mitch McConnell stood by that Wednesday afternoon: “It is a president’s constitutional right to nominate a Supreme Court justice, and it is the Senate’s constitutional right to act as a check on a president and withhold its consent.”
But other than McConnell, there was a surprising thunder of silence from the normally clamorous GOP Wednesday after Garland’s Rose Garden introduction. (We don’t count Ted Cruz.)
The crickets are somewhat understandable. After all, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah and the longest-serving Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, had just last week told conservative news site Newsmax “[Obama] could easily name Merrick Garland, who is a fine man,” but “[Obama] probably won’t do that because this appointment is about the election. So I’m pretty sure he’ll name someone the [liberal Democratic base] wants.”
Still, don’t hold your breath for a hearing on the nominee. Instead GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are busying themselves holding other hearings: There’s one titled “Late-term abortion” about a proposed 20-week abortion ban, and still another on whether more immigration reforms are needed to protect skilled American workers.
It’s the screech of crickets.
Former Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Rick Smith is questioned as a witness before Judge Robert Philyaw during a preliminary hearing for the Ooltewah High School basketball coaches and the school’s athletic director in Hamilton County Juvenile Court on Feb. 25.Thank you, Rick Smith, for stepping down this week from your post as superintendent of the Hamilton County Schools system.
Now we will see whether members of the Hamilton County Board of Education will make additional, needed changes to turn our declining school system around.
The first clue will come this evening at the school board meeting. Will the board name a new superintendent from internal ranks? Will it follow through with recommendations and discussions of appointing an interim superintendent while the community sorts through the findings of the Chattanooga 2.0 report?
We suggest the board take the interim route, allowing the board, the community and local education leaders time to take a complete look at our school needs.
A woman turn around and gestures to the news media as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, not pictured, talks about the news media, prior to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arriving at a campaign event in Tampa, Fla., Monday, March 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) The bogus security threat that shut down a Trump rally and led to a now infamous, fist-throwing melee last week epitomizes the campaign of The Donald: It was all at his own instigation, and it points up “hugely” his own lack of credibility and substance.
Trump said police – after “a 30 minute conversation” with the Trump campaign – suggested canceling the rally where supporters and protesters already were waiting – quietly – in a packed hall.
Chicago police said they were not consulted and did not recommend the cancellation. Trump’s claim was absolutely not true.
Trump – who carried Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama in our primary elections – is a George Wallace-like opportunist who frankly doesn’t even care about the race hate and class hate he overtly and covertly promotes.
He himself has incited hatred, retribution and violence over and over at these rallies.
Don’t buy his snake oil. Not for America, not for his fake university, not for his bankrupted casinos, not for any of his con-man real estate or corporate products – and especially not for his narcissistic and dangerous political aspirations.