AAA300 said:
Hijacking can be spun both ways. But the way I see it the people have spoken since the last election and voted for Republicans to take over the house and senate. So if Obama with his short time left trys to put a way left judge for a appointment the Senate should block it as the people have voted the last election to go in a different direction. I doubt he'll try to meet half way with this appointment. |
No... the people have not spoken. More democratic seats happened to be up that year (21 to 15) and fewer of the seats for democrats had incumbents. The seats up for reelection happened to be largely in the south, Less people tend to vote during election years. And of course, there are many factors that go into the senate races.
Most importantly though, only 1/3 of the seats of Senate ar up at any given time. So, whereas every person had the opportunity to vote for Obama or Romney, only 1/3 of the country had a chance to vote for a senator that year. By the way, the Senate currently has a 14% approval rate. To say people voted to go in a different direction just doesn't really make sense.
In the house, the republicans already had a majority there. So that wasn't a change of direction. The people voted for a republican house in 2012, and also voted for a democratic president, so people's votes for president and congress can be different.
And who the people voted for in the house is irrelevant. Because the house and Senate do not make judicial appointments. That's the president's job in accordance with the constitution. The constitution doesn't say "It's the President's job until year 7" or "it's a president's job unless seats change in congress". It's the president's job. I don't see how the president doing exactly what his job is according to the constitution could be considered hijacking in any way.
The Senate's job is to judge nominees. If they do this in good faith, then fine. But if they, as they have stated they would, simply reject anyone who is suggested, that is hijacking the political process.
