Senator John McCain has been a decorated naval aviator, prisoner of war, Congressman, Senator, and candidate for President, but this week, he lowered himself to the base level of partisanship and lent his name to promoting the frustrating gridlock in Washington.
McCain is locked in a tight re-election campaign in Arizona and has been uneasy walking a tightrope with Republican voters because of his discomfort with Donald Trump as his Party’s standard bearer.
McCain refused to endorse the Republican nominee after Trump said McCain is not a hero because he was captured during the Vietnam conflict. Even after military veterans complained, Trump never really apologized to McCain. But in his race, McCain fears a backlash from Trump supporters if he abandons his Party’s annointed leader.
So for months, McCain has tried to stay above the fray and run his own race while appeasing rabid Republican voters without getting too close to Trump. Careful as he was, though, McCain finally gave in this week.
While campaigning for his friend, Senator Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, McCain promised to block ANY Supreme Court nominee if Hillary Clinton becomes the next president. It goes without saying that the definition of prejudice is to pre-judge someone without any basis to support it, and that’s exactly what McCain just pledged to do; not consider any person for the Court without even knowing who it may be.
As a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee which is charged with examining and voting on nominees to the highest court in the land, McCain is shirking his duty to carry out a vital part of the American political system of checks and balances. McCain is sending a clear message that the gridlock in Washington isn’t a matter of policy differences, but, instead, it’s a partisan strategy to deny the other party any victory, regardless of the cost to taxpayers.
McCain had been a moderate Republican for most of his political career and, at times, received his share of criticism from the GOP leadership for working with Democrats on sensible legislation, including the campaign reform partly named for him, the McCain-Feingold bill.
But in recent years, McCain has had to move further to the right as the Tea Party movement’s sway within the Republican voter base has grown. No one can forget McCain’s biggest move to appease the right when he picked Sarah Palin as his running mate in the 2008 presidential campaign, and brought a new style of harsh partisanship to national elections.
This latest move, however, is more than just political.
The Supreme Court has been operating with only eight Justices since the death of Antonin Scalia in February of this year. In the case of a vacancy on the Court, the President is empowered by the Constitution to makes an appointment “by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate”.
That authority of the Senate to consent has been used for over 200 years without much fuss but, this year, the Republican Senate leaders declared they would not hold hearings for any nomination made by President Obama. Their reasoning was that the next president should appoint a new justice that could end up serving for decades to come.
Maybe that was a reasonable position to take, given that Obama was in the final 9 months of his last term. It could be argued that, although it has been done several times in history, a lame duck president shouldn’t take that appointment away from his  incoming successor.
Now, however, McCain has taken the absurd position that, if Hillary Clinton is elected, the Senate should hold up any of her nominations. That thwarts the process that the Senate has a responsibility to undertake.
What’s really at stake is that the Court has been deadlocked 4-4 on several important issues it faced this year, and Republicans don’t want to give the Court’s balance away to Democrats if Clinton wins.
A few months ago, the Court deadlocked on the United States v. Texas case challenging President Obama’s use of an Executive Order he used to put in place the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA program.  A lower court judge in Texas issued an injunction to stop the program that would have halted the deportation of up to 5 million undocumented immigrants living in the US. With a tied Court, the lower court injunction was left in place, and one of President Obama’s signature successes was stalled.
But, now, there’s even more on the line.
In recent weeks, Donald Trump has denounced the entire election process as “rigged” and he now says he may not accept the outcome of the election if he loses. As we saw in the wake of the 2000 election when George W. Bush and Al Gore contested the results of that election, the decision went to a Republican leaning Supreme Court that handed Bush the victory on a 5-4 vote.
If Trump challenges the election results in certain states, and a local court makes a ruling in his favor that then gets appealed to the tied Court, the local decision would stand. The entire presidential election could be left in the hands of a local judge in Ohio, Florida, or Nevada, for example. That’s simply not how our national elections are supposed to work.
Most Republican Senators have already revealed themselves as obstinate politicians more concerned with short-term political gains than honoring the system of seperation of powers put in place by our founding fathers over 200 years ago.
John McCain used to tower over his colleagues as a true patriot and statesman; now, he’s just one of the bunch of two-bit players that have earned the disdain of so many Americans.
Shame on Senator McCain for lowering himself into the gutter of politics and giving into the same old ways of partisanship in Washington. After a long and distinguished career, he has brought dishonor upon himself.