Weather scientists will record Feb. 23, 2016, as Dark Tuesday — the day and night more than two dozen tornadoes pounded the Gulf States, spreading devastation and tragedy from Louisiana to Florida.
Meanwhile, political scientists will be analyzing a very different piece of Dark Tuesday debris — a stunning pattern of self-inflicted political devastation that swept across the heartland from the Potomac riverbank to Nevada. And someday those experts may conclude Dark Tuesday was the beginning of the end of the Republican Party your parents once respected as the proud party of Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan.
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and members of his Republican leadership team announced that the Senate Judiciary Committee will take the unprecedented step of refusing to hold hearings on any Supreme Court nominee President Barack Obama might select. “This nomination will be determined by whoever wins the presidency in the polls,” McConnell said. “I agree with the Judiciary Committee’s recommendation that we not have hearings. In short, there will not be action taken.”
No action taken means Senate Republican leaders have chosen to condemn the Supreme Court to an existence of having only eight justices — and the potential for many four-four tie votes — for well over a year.
The Constitution specifies the president “shall nominate” Supreme Court justices and the Senate shall provide its “advice and consent.” The Senate’s procedures call for the Judiciary Committee to conduct hearings at which the president’s nominee answers questions. The committee then votes on whether to recommend the nomination to the full Senate.
But, having disrespected the Constitution’s provisions, Senate Republican leaders extended their senatorial discourtesy to the president and any prospective nominee. As a matter of courtesy, a president’s nominee usually meets individually with committee members before any hearings. But the Senate’s top Republicans summarily deep-sixed that tradition as a waste of time.
Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn of Texas, a judiciary committee member, explained: “I don’t see the point of going through the motions if we know what the outcome is going to be.” And McConnell gave their dissing his blessing: “I don’t know the purpose of such a visit. I would not be inclined to take that myself.”
Hours later, way across the continental divide, Nevada’s Republicans convened their presidential caucuses. And what happened in Vegas sure didn’t stay in Vegas — it led the nonstop news.
Donald Trump had parlayed his campaign of snide insults, racial sneers, birther distortions, daily deceits, and soulless mimicry of a disabled journalist into, as he would say, a YUGE victory. He nearly doubled the percentages of his nearest competitors.
Now Trump is the undisputed presidential front-runner of the party he only recently joined. His very presence at the top of the ticket shames all who embody the very best in his once-Grand Old Party.
But then again, Dark Tuesday also included a development that could mean that despite all the above missteps, Trump or any Republican may indeed end up as your next president. A federal judge ruled Tuesday that in coming months, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton’s top aides can be questioned under oath by a group of Clinton’s political adversaries, the conservative group Judicial Watch. The group has filed a lawsuit challenging whether the email system Clinton used as secretary of state violated federal open-records laws.
Clinton has admitted she was wrong to have used a private email for her government business. Now, any damaging revelations from the sworn depositions of Clinton’s aides could become big news at the politically worst of times for her.
Martin Schram, an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, is a veteran Washington journalist, author and TV documentary executive. Email: martin.schram@gmail.com.
