Eric Scheiner rushed to report the big news in a Feb. 14 CNSNews.com article:
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is describing current GOP calls to let the next president make a Supreme Court nomination “obstructionism”, but in 2007 Schumer said, “I will do everything in my power to prevent one more ideological ally from joining (Justices John) Roberts and (Samuel) Alito,” and recommended the Senate, “should not confirm any Bush nominee to the Supreme Court except in extraordinary circumstances.”
“The Supreme Court is dangerously out of balance,” Schumer told the American Constitution Society on July 27, 2007.
“With respect to the Supreme Court at least, I will recommend to my colleagues that we should not confirm any Bush nominee to the Supreme Court except in extraordinary circumstances.”
“I will do everything in my power to prevent one more ideological ally from joining (John) Roberts and (Samuel) Alito on the court,” Schumer later added.
CNS being a very biased “news” organization, Scheiner left out a couple things. First, he failed to note that Schumer’s comments were effectively hypothetical since no further Supreme Court openings occurred during the Bush administration.
Second Scheiner failed to mention the Republican response to Schumer’s comments. From a July 2007 Politico article:
A White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said Schumer’s comments show “a tremendous disrespect for the Constitution” by suggesting that the Senate not confirm nominees.
“This is the kind of blind obstruction that people have come to expect from Sen. Schumer,” Perino said. “He has an alarming habit of attacking people whose character and position make them unwilling or unable to respond. That is the sign of a bully. If the past is any indication, I would bet that we would see a Democratic senatorial fundraising appeal in the next few days.”
Somehow, we don’t think Scheiner will remind Republicans that its current stance on opposing any and every Obama Supreme Court nomination in the next year was called “blind obstruction” and “disrespect for the Constitution” by Republicans.