Just when it seemed US politics couldn't get crazier, or uglier, the gods throw another curveball. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia bites the dust at a ranch, leaving the SCOTUS temporarily split evenly along ideological lines with an even number of votes until a new Justice is appointed. Acting like mature adults, American politicians calmly go about selecting a replacement. Oops, sorry, that was the outcome in bizarro world. Actually a fierce political battle instantly emerges. The GOP immediately threatened to block any candidate offered by Obama (the President nominates a candidate to the Senate for confirmation per the Constitution). Their stated justification for leaving the Court short a member for a year - to allow the People to vote in the next president to make that nomination - is obviously just a thin excuse to delay the nomination in the hopes the next President is a Republican who would nominate another conservative Justice. Obama replied that he won't be bullied into abdicating his Constitutional responsibility.
It's strangely symmetrical since Scalia himself was a very politically charged and polarizing Justice in a Court which has long since lost all pretense of political neutrality in the increasingly split nation. Cases he's taken part in deciding include the controversial Citizens United decision (in which he sided with the majority ruling, on the wrong side of morality and hopefully, history).
Like him or not, nobody had the chance to give the man a respectful burial before making his death an excuse for yet another political circus.
Hopefully things will calm again after the impending second US Revolution. Just kidding (maybe
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"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wonderous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross... but it's not for the timid." Q, Q Who
