Fast and slow
Fast and slow
Ever notice that people coming out of Puna headed down Highway 11 toward Hilo are flying like a bat out of hell in the slow (right) lanes, but moving like they are in a funeral procession in the fast lane going back up the hill?
What?! No like Puna? It’s a great place!
(But perhaps we should all tell Mauna Loa Mac Nut to allow access to the Railroad Avenue alternate route.)
Fred Fogel
Volcano
Of vacancies, lies
Republicans don’t want President Obama to exercise his constitutional duty to make appointments to the Supreme Court during his last year as president. They say there is a precedent for presidents deferring to their as-yet-unelected successor in this matter. That is false.
I researched all Supreme Court vacancies since 1900. There are two questions. Were vacancies filled in the last year of a president’s term? And, were appointments in the first year of a presidential term made to fill vacancies that occurred under his predecessor? The short answers are “yes” and “no.”
Since 1900, six Supreme Court vacancies were filled during election years: in 1916 by Woodrow Wilson (two!); in 1932 by Herbert Hoover; in 1940 by Franklin D. Roosevelt; in 1956 by Dwight Eisenhower; and in 1988 by Ronald Reagan.
Did presidents ever not make a Supreme Court appointment in an election year, to allow their successors to choose? No! Not once in the 116 years did that happen.
Thirteen Supreme Court justices have been appointed during the first year of a president’s term, but none of those vacancies occurred before the election the previous year.
So, let’s label this prating from the Republicans correctly: a lie, a shameless attempt to disguise their partisan hatred for our president as something else.
There is no precedent. Not one president has allowed his successor to fill a vacancy occurring during his term. If Obama does not get his appointee approved this year, he will be the first in 116 years to be denied that right. That is shameful.
Dan Lindsay
Hilo