Playing by the "rules"

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is steadfast in his commitment to the GOP-powered Senate refusing to meet with Judge Merrick Garland, President Obama's SCOTUS nominee, to give the nomination any hearings, to refuse the candidate a vote.  As his explanation for such an extraordinary thumbing of the party's collective noses at the president's constitutional right, Leader McConnell righteously drapes himself in "the Biden Rule."

It seems that the Leader & his cohorts consider the "Biden Rule" to be on par with the Hastert Rule.  So, am inviting you to do an online search of two political "rules" - the Hastert Rule & the Biden Rule.

You'll get interesting findings.

Hastert Rule - The Hastert Rule, also known as the "majority of the majority" rule, is an informal governing principle used by Republican Speakers of the House of Representatives since the mid-1990s to maintain their speakerships & limit the power of the minority party to bring bills up for a vote on the floor of the House. Under the rule, the Speaker will not allow a floor vote on a bill unless a majority of the majority party supports the bill.  

It's worth noting that the "rule" was the invention of the GOP & only followed by the GOP.  Although named for now disgraced Speaker Dennis Hastert, it was followed by his predecessor, Newt Gingrich.

Democrats, never enamored with the "rule," chose to act quite differently when they took power.  Nancy Pelosi (Speaker, 2007-2011) condemned the "rule" when the party was out of power & declared when she took the gave in 2007, "I’m the Speaker of the House…I have to take into consideration something broader than the majority of the majority in the Democratic Caucus... I would encourage my colleagues not to be proposing resolutions that say ‘the majority of the majority does this or that. We have to talk it out, see what is possible to get a job done. And as I say, we do that together." 

  

Biden Rule - Unlike the Hastert Rule, which has been referred to by that name for well over 10 years, the first reference to the Biden Rule was in the early part of THIS year of Our Lord, Two Thousand & Sixteen, by Sen. Chuck Grassley.  More precisely - last month.  Seriously.

 

Yes, Sen. Joe Biden made comments in 1992 about picking a SCOTUS nominee during an election year.  MEGA CAVEAT - over the 20+ years since Sen. Biden made those comments, they were never cemented in anyone's consciousness as a "rule" on the same level as the GOP passionately embraced Hastert's doctrine.  

There is a word for Republicans elevating Biden's words to the level of supposed political doctrine - hooey.

Or possibly stupid - imagine what sort of SCOTUS candidate they can expect from a President Trump or President Clinton, especially if by willfully blocking any consideration hands control of the Senate back to Dems, a very real possibility with independents already fed to the teeth with the GOP putting ideology ahead of governing.  

Obstruction only helps their opponents, but my guess is that GOP leaders can't help themselves.  

Amazing.