Ron Johnson Won't Do His Job, Asks Us for Another Term

It has been 21 days since President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the US Supreme Court. Yet Senate Republicans, including our own Ron Johnson, have done nothing to fill this critical vacancy. No hearings. No votes. Johnson has not even met with the nominee.

Future-former Senator Johnson is taking his marching orders from Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump in his refusal to allow America a full Supreme Court. He is certainly not following the wishes of his constituents. According to a PPP poll, 62% of Wisconsinites think that the Senate should fill the vacancy this year. In spite of the GOP propaganda machine, only 35% of Wisconsinites think that the Senate should stall confirmation until 2017.

President Obama's nominee, Garland, is both less liberal and older than I would prefer. I would rather have a progressive firebrand who would be on the court for the next 40 years. However, by nominating a moderate, the President is being realistic. If obstructionist Senate Republicans were truly interested in governing, confirmation of the well-qualified Garland would be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, Ron Johnson has no brain.

Johnson just wants the whole issue to go away. He doesn't even mention the Supreme Court vacancy on his official senatorial website, or try to explain his intransigence. In a 3/7 radio interview, he complained, "This is blown way out of proportion." In another interview, he whined that “I have never had the press press me so hard to make a change of position."

Speaking to reporters in Madison in February, Johnson stated, "This is what we're going to do, now get over it. Let’s move on. The Senate has spoken, a coequal branch of government. We’re not going to consider the nomination. ... So now let’s start moving on with the other important things we must do for the American people." No, Ron. This will not go away. You need to act on this nomination. Now.

Johnson keeps echoing the Republican talking-point mantra of "letting the people decide ^TM". However, he let the cat out of the bag in a March radio interview. Asked if he would be for immediate hearings if Mitt Romney were President. Johnson walked into the trap, stammering "It's a different situation. Generally, and this is the way it works out politically, if you're replacing — if a conservative president's replacing a conservative justice, there's a little more accommodation to it."

A spokesperson quickly tried to walk-back RoJo's statement. But his on-air confession made it perfectly clear. Johnson has no interest in "letting the people decide ^TM". His sole brazenly partisan motivation is to foist another extreme conservative judge onto the American people. He wants to ensure a conservative majority on the court, no matter who the American people elect as President.

Johnson further showed his hypocrisy in a 3/18 interview on one of the horde of far-right Milwaukee radio talk shows. The ass-clown-Limbaugh-wannabe host asked RoJo what he makes of the notion,"Well, in the lame duck session in December, if Hillary wins, we could take this more moderate guy, because Hillary would nominate someone worse. Are you pondering that?"

Johnson replied, "Well, that may not be a bad idea, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it." So while Johnson claims to want to give the us a choice on a nominee, if we decide (again) that we want a more progressive justice by (again) electing a Democrat, he feels it is not a bad idea to take that choice away from us. If it is in his partisan interest to negate the will of the people, he will do it.

Johnson feels that conservatives are somehow entitled to a permanent majority on the Supreme Court, no matter how many progressive presidents the American people elect. If the Republicans retain the Senate, it is unlikely that we will ever see a confirmed Justice from a Democratic President. They will simply delay indefinitely, as the Court slowly dwindles to seven to six to five....

At this year's extremist CPAC conference, Johnson ominously promised the audience, "Let me assure everybody because I know there are some concerns. The Republican majority in the Senate will not allow the Supreme Court to flip. Take that one to the bank." And further, "We want to confirm a Justice Scalia replacement who is like Justice Scalia."

Ron Johnson thinks that the far-right is entitled to a permanent majority on the US Supreme Court. He will do anything, say anything to keep that majority. He will disrespect the President's obligation to fill Court vacancies. He will ignore his duties of advice and consent. He will ignore the will of the people. We cannot allow this hyper-partisan hack to remain in the Senate. He must go come November.