Asian-American voters lean Democratic, but are still up for grabs. Now imagine that President Obama picks the first Asian-American Supreme Court nominee to fill the vacancy opened up by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death — and then that trailblazer is met by an unprecedented snub by Republican senators who refuse even to schedule a vote.
By promising to oppose Obama’s nominee, no matter whom he picks, the GOP may think it’s made a shrewd move to rally its conservative base. But it has actually handed Obama an enormous political opportunity. He now has, effectively, the power to choose which group of Americans the GOP alienates next.
Remember, no nominee has ever been treated with the disrespect that the Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has said awaits Obama’s appointee. Refusing even to vote would violate the norm that has held for Democratic and Republican nominees.
McConnell’s justification — that the American people should have a say on the nominee first — is so silly that it hardly bears rebuttal. The American people did have a say, when they elected Obama in 2012 to pick Supreme Court justices and exercise the president’s other duties for four years. By preventing a normal vote on his nominee, it’s McConnell, not Obama, who’s thwarting the people’s will and threatening the court’s independence.
Since he knows the Republican strategy in advance, Obama might be tempted to use the nomination to inflict maximum political damage. Maybe he should pick the first openly gay nominee? Or the first Cuban-American? The first black woman, maybe? How about a nominee from a swing state? Or perhaps he should pick a nominee who has won Senate approval previously, to highlight for moderate voters the GOP’s disingenuousness.
Obviously, Obama should pick the most qualified candidate. Still, the fact of the matter is that many of the rumored contenders, like Sri Srinivasan, who’d be the first Indian-American, and Loretta Lynch, who would be the first black woman, punch both tickets — qualified individuals who have already been confirmed by the Senate and whose nomination would make life miserable for Republicans.
Party leaders ignore those dangers at their peril. If the GOP should have learned anything from its defeat in 2012, it’s that base-pleasing antics can haunt them later. In that election, Mitt Romney hoped that Hispanic voters would forget his calls for illegal immigrants to “self deport’’ by November. Instead, they deserted the GOP in droves. Bashing Planned Parenthood makes great fodder for primary commercials — and then Republicans wonder why women won’t support them in the general election.
There’s still time for McConnell to switch gears. Once Obama picks a nominee, Senate Republicans should follow the normal process for evaluating judges. Senators can still vote against the nominee, but to change the rules now would do far greater damage than McConnell and Senate Republicans seem to grasp — not just to the political system, but to themselves.
