Power Matters
By 
Democratic charges of hypocrisy on Republicans confirming Scalia Jr to the bench are the weakest of all beers. True, yes. But also weak. No one cares. Power is all that matters and it is all that will ever matter. Republicans understand this.
Asked by “Fox News Sunday” guest host Brit Hume about the charges by Democrats of hypocrisy over the Senate GOP’s blocking of President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland in 2016, Kennedy said the chamber’s majority had the power to set its own agenda.
“On both sides there’s been a lot of circumlocution and attempted Churchillian rhetoric about the precedent to be followed during an election year to fill a vacancy,” Kennedy said. “When the Democrats are in charge of the process, they do what they think is right … when the Republicans are in charge of the process, they do what they think is right.”
Pressed by Hume on whether this was a case of “shoe-on-the-other foot syndrome,” Kennedy responded “Sure, absolutely, and that’s why I say in Washington, you have to watch what people do, not what they say.”
“I don’t think there’s ever been another instance where when the Democrats were in charge, they didn’t do what they wanted,” he added. “If the shoe were on the other foot I can assure you [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer [D-N.Y.] would do what the Republicans are doing right now … If you don’t believe that you probably peaked in high school.”
When he’s right, he’s right. And this ruthlessness is the only way in which we will ever fix the country. Norms and standards and civility are all tools by which you screw yourself.