What They’re Reading at Home: Republican Senators Excoriated for Rushing to Confirm Trump Nominee in Editorials and Op-Eds

Arizona Republic: Sen. Martha McSally continues her death spiral with call for a quick Supreme Court vote

“Sen. Martha McSally continued her political death spiral on Friday, becoming one of the first Republican senators in the nation to call for quickly filling the Supreme Court vacancy and to heck with what voters may (or may not) want. Here was McSally’s final chance to show swing voters that she can stand apart from President Donald Trump…Instead, she hurdled forth on Friday, leaving those principles in her wake as she called for the Senate to go supersonic and fill the vacancy created when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died just hours earlier.”

Columbus Dispatch: Honor RGB’s legacy of a more-just America

“Any Republican with a shred of intellectual honesty must recognize that now, six weeks before an election, waiting to make a replacement is far more justified — as they argued four years ago. We are disappointed but unsurprised that Sen. Rob Portman, who said in 2016 that no president should nominate a justice in an election year, is saying the opposite now.

We are disappointed but unsurprised that Sen. Rob Portman, who said in 2016 that no president should nominate a justice in an election year, is saying the opposite now.”

Cincinnati Enquirer: Portman’s flip-flopping hurts the legitimacy of SCOTUS

“McConnell and Trump enjoy blowing our institutions apart with the blessing of their cowardly senators. I fear this will further inflame our body politic. We need a return to compassion, calmness, decency and compromise. I voted for you twice, Sen. Portman, because I believed you were a principled and truly ‘moderate’ rational person. I will passionately work, volunteer and donate for your replacement in 2022.”

Des Moines Register: Profiles in hypocrisy: Grassley, Ernst sidestep previous positions on Supreme Court nominees

“If Iowa’s senior senator did not think a presidential nominee should be confirmed months before the 2016 general election, how can he possibly justify voting on a nominee weeks before the 2020 general election?”

The Gazette: Grassley and Ernst must oppose Trump

“So, we urge Grassley as an editorial board, as his constituents, as people whose constitutional rights are on the line, to hold himself to the standard he set in 2016, and refuse to support the president’s efforts to fill the vacancy left by Justice Ginsburg. As far as Iowa’s other senator, Joni Ernst, we urge her to do the same. Unlike Grassley, Ernst has said she’d support a politically craven push by the president to fill the vacancy this year. But unlike Grassley, Ernst faces a tight reelection race. Her ability to hold onto her senate seat is threatened by her legacy of playing party politics.”

Denver Post: Ginsburg applied the law equally for decades; Cory Gardner flip-flopped on voters in four years

“Gardner and McConnell’s unabashed willingness to so quickly dispense with their ‘voters-should-decide’ insistence is astounding. Where was their constitutional duty in 2016? It was an inconvenience easily dispensed with and replaced with pretty talk of giving voters a voice.”

Florida Sun Sentinel: Stand by your word, Sen. Rubio, and against the mad dash for a Supreme Court appointment

“There couldn’t be a greater hypocrisy than for McConnell’s Senate to confirm any nominee this president might appoint — not after stealing that Supreme Court seat from Obama just four years ago…For the Senate to confirm any Trump nominee before or after he loses the election would give the Democrats more than enough justification — should they win the White House and the Senate — to retaliate by adding two seats to the court.”

Miami Herald: Don’t be a hypocrite, Sen. Rubio, reject push to replace Ginsburg before election

“As of this writing late Saturday afternoon, Marco Rubio, Florida’s senior senator, has not made a public statement on the issue. But here’s what he said in 2016: ‘I don’t think we should be moving forward with a nominee in the last year of this president’s term,’ Rubio said. ‘I would say that even if it was a Republican president.’ Conveniently, there’s a Republican president in office, and this might — might — be his last term. Rubio has a chance here to hew to the principle he expressed four years ago and honor the towering Ginsburg’s last request to not be replaced until ‘a new president is installed’.”

Philadelphia Inquirer: Honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s legacy by waiting to replace her until after 2020 election

“Ginsburg’s loss is monumental — and in the coming weeks the battle over filling her seat will also be massive. Though there are just over 40 days before the election, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed that Trump’s nominee will get a vote on the Senate floor despite a refusal to grant even a hearing to Merrick Garland, whom President Barack Obama nominated in March 2016, on the grounds it was too soon before an election…RBG’s dying wish was not to be replaced until a new president is installed. Trump and Senate Republicans should honor both her wishes and her legacy and not even think about filling her seat.”

The Tennessean: How Republicans can shrink the nation’s divide after Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death

“If you are a Republican reading this, put pressure on your senators. Call, write, and reach out to them on social media. Tell them that Republican voters value the consistent implementation of rules and reject their arbitrary application for political gain. Tell them to follow the rules, even if Mitch McConnell doesn’t want them to. Regardless of party affiliation, the last five years have been politically exhausting. We owe it to ourselves, our country and Justice Ginsburg to take every opportunity to reunify.”