The Supreme Court vacancy, a minefield for Republicans

I say that Trump the racial bigot and xenophobe has an empty brain. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

Garland, currently chief judge of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, was serving as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice when the case went to trial in 1997. McVeigh was eventually convicted for his part in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that left 168 people dead.

Those who covered the case said Garland, who oversaw the choice of the prosecution team and organized much of the evidence and gathering of witnesses, showed professionalism and a keen legal understanding that helped the prosecution win convincingly.

"I was impressed," Nolan Clay, a veteran Oklahoman journalist who was the hometown paper's lead reporter on the trial, told Media Matters. "He came down here and he was involved in the very first hearings and he chose the prosecution team and he chose a bunch of spectacular people."

Clay added that Garland "had the O.J. Simpson trial in mind and he didn't want people who would make names for themselves. He let them do the case and did not micro-manage them. He insisted that search warrants be done properly. He did it very much by the book."

Clay recalled the initial appearance before the court by McVeigh on April 21, 1995, two days after the bombing.

"Garland was there and made sure reporters and some members of the public could come in and see it," Clay recalled. "It was a public airing and he wanted it done by the book. I was impressed by that."

Not much of a response.

Because its spitting in the eye of the constitution you Republicans claim to defend so much is why!

So, in a since I guess he is smart.

The Senate has the option to either confirm or not to confirm supreme court nominee. I thought the Senate was suppose to consider and give a fair hearing to the nominee. There is nothing preventing the Senate from voting against the nominee after the nominee has had his fair hearing.

I think most Americans know enough about Trump not to vote for him. He's an ego maniac with no government experience. He just wants the title for the history books - nothing else.

I think McConnell made a serious political blunder in an attempt to placate his angry base. He might have been able to drag out the confirmation process 11 months anyway... but you don't announce your plan to subvert the Constitutional process publicly.

I predict that Obama's choice to replace Scalia will be the most liberal nominee ever foisted upon the senate and the American people. How do I know that? Because Fox News and the conservative echo chamber will tell me so. I don't even have to know who the nominee will be. Srikanth Srinivasan? Ultra-liberal. Loretta Lynch? Ultra-ultra-liberal. Brian Sandoval? Ultra-liberal, and maybe an illegal alien. Elizabeth Warren? Don't make me laugh.

When pushed on the possibility that someone more liberal than Garland could be nominated in 2017 if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, McConnell responded, "It'd be hard to be more liberal than Merrick Garland, but it's my hope that she will not be making the appointment."