GOP builds a wall around Supreme Court vacancy

Senate Republicans have made it clear they will slam the door on President Barack Obama and anyone he might nominate to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.

GOP Senate leaders took that stand only hours after Scalia was found dead of natural causes Feb. 13 at a remote West Texas ranch. They’re serving up red meat to angry Republican voters.

Anger is the big thing in politics these days.

But once taken, this is a stand that cannot be repudiated without those same GOP leaders making themselves substitute targets for those same angry GOP voters.

And just to wrap it all up in a big bow, the Republican Senate majority emerged from a closed meeting on Tuesday all but united (only two members disagreed) in saying any Obama nominee would receive no hearing, no vote, not even courtesy meetings with senators.

The Republicans could have waited to see what name Obama might put up, even gone through the motions of consideration — who knows, it might have been someone they could accept.

For a day or so, that even seemed possible. Word circulated that Obama was considering Brian Sandoval, a former federal judge who’s now the much-respected Republican governor of Nevada.

But Sandoval, after initially agreeing to the vetting process, withdrew his name on Thursday.

Obama has taken an irrevocable stand, too. He has said he will put up a nominee, as the Constitution says he should.

That’s worth watching. It’s not likely that Obama would simply offer up a liberal lamb for sacrifice.

But the Republicans have forestalled any possibility of success. They have sentenced the nation to live under a short-handed Supreme Court for the rest of this session and most if not all of the next.

Real court cases, on real important issues, are likely to suffer. That’s a a loss for us all.

This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 6:55 PM with the headline "GOP builds a wall around Supreme Court vacancy."