Senate shenanigans

Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is on record as saying that the next President of the United States - the one we'll elect in November - should nominate the next Supreme Court Justice to replace Justice Scalia after his sudden death last weekend.  

Here's the quote, from Politico: 

“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”

A couple of things here.  First, the job of the President, as explicitly outlined in the US Constitution, is to nominate a Supreme Court justice. The Senate's job, as explicitly outlined in the US Constitution, is to vote on them. (I mention the explicit thing because the deceased Justice Scalia loved nothing more than to say that the US Constitution was a dead document that should be taken at face value and not interpreted for current exigencies.)  

Senator McConnell made this statement an hour after the justice's death was confirmed - when people like Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Bernie Sanders (D-VT) were offering condolences to the family of the recently departed - which is a dick move, but that's besides the point. 

The point is that the American people do have a voice now.  Senator McConnell might not like it, but we - the American people - voted for the current president. Twice. And he still has over ten months left in office.  

And another way that Americans - FAR more Americans, as it turns out - have a voice, is by for whom they voted in the last election.  And overwhelmingly, more of us - the voice-ful American people - voted for Democratic members of the US Senate than for Republican members of the US Senate. And when I say "overwhelmingly" that's not hyperbole: it's over 24 million more votes. 

That's about the entire population of Ghana, or Australia, or to put it in terms perhaps more comfortable to the GOP Senate, that's more than the entire populations of: Tennessee, South Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana and Alabama combined. 

Not voting age populations of those particular traitor states, but their entire total population.  

That's staggering. 24 million more Americans voted for current Democratic Senators than Republicans. 

And I can hear some people saying, "Well, that's California and New York, so what do you expect?" Like California and New York don't count, but whatever, okay - delete California and New York vote totals and it's still FOUR MILLION MORE.  That's more than Oklahoma! 

So who the hell are these "American people" that Senator McConnell wants to hear from?  And is he sure? I don't know, but Senator, you might want to be careful what you wish for. 

(Raw data below the jump.)



Data aggregated from: Ballotpedia

State	Name		Vote Total
Wisconsin	Baldwin	D	1,544,274
Colorado	Bennett	D	851,590
Connecticut	Blumenthal	D	435,029
New Jersey	Booker	D	1,043,866
California	Boxer	D	5,218,441
Ohio	Brown	D	2,762,690
Washington	Cantwell	D	1,855,493
Maryland	Cardin	D	1,474,028
Delaware	Carper	D	252,892
Pennsylvania	Casey	D	3,021,364
Delaware	Coons	D	130,655
Indiana	Donnelly	D	1,281,181
Illinois	Durban	D	1,929,637
California	Feinstein	D	7,864,624
Minnesota	Franken	D	1,053,205
New York	Gillibrand	D	4,808,878
New Mexico	Heinrich	D	395,717
North Dakota	Heitkamp	D	161,337
Hawai'i	Hirono	D	269,489
Virginia	Kaine	D	2,010,067
Minnesota	Klobuchar	D	1,854,595
Vermont	Leahy	D	151,281
West Virginia	Manchin	D	391,669
Massachusetts	Markey	D	1,289,944
Missouri	McCaskill	D	1,494,125
New Jersey	Menendez	D	1,987,680
Oregon	Merkley	D	814,537
Maryland	Mikulski	D	1,140,531
Connecticut	Murphy	D	830,221
Washington	Murray	D	1,314,930
Florida	Nelson	D	4,523,451
Michigan	Peters	D	1,704,936
Rhode Island	Reed	D	223,675
Nevada	Reid	D	362,785
Hawai'i	Schatz	D	246,770
New York	Schumer	D	3,047,880
New Hampshire	Shaheen	D	251,184
Michigan	Stabenow	D	2,735,826
Montana	Tester	D	236,123
Pennsylvania	Toomey	D	2,028,945
New Mexico	Udall	D	286,409
Virginia	Warner	D	1,073,667
Massachusetts	Warren	D	1,696,346
Rhode Island	Whitehouse	D	271,034
Oregon	Wyden	D	825,507
total for all Democrats:			69,148,508
Maine	King	I	370,580
Vermont	Sanders	I	207,848
total for all Independents:			578,428
State Name   Vote Total Tennessee Alexander R 849,629 New Hampshire Ayotte R 273,218 Wyoming Barasso R 185,250 Missouri Blunt R 1,054,160 Arkansas Boozman R 451,618 North Carolina Burr R 1,458,046 Louisiana  Cassidy R 712,379 Indiana Coats R 952,116 Mississippi Cochran R 378,481 Maine Collins R 413,505 Tennessee Corker R 1,506,443 Texas Cornyn R 2,860,678 Arkansas Cotton R 478,819 Idaho Crapo R 319,953 Texas Cruz R 4,440,137 Montana Daines R 213,709 Wyoming Enzi R 121,554 Iowa Ernst R 588,575 Nebraska Fisher R 455,593 Arizona Flake R 1,104,457 Colorado Gardner R 983,891 South Carolina Graham R 672,941 Iowa Grassley R 718,215 Utah Hatch R 657,608 Nevada Heller R 457,656 North Dakota Hoeven R 181,689 Oklahoma Imhofe R 558,166 Georgia Isakson R 1,489,904 Illinois Kirk R 1,778,698 Oklahoma Lankford R 557,002 Utah Lee R 360,403 Arizona McCain R 1,005,615 Kentucky McConnell R 806,787 West Virginia Moore Capito R 280,400 Kansas  Moran R 587,175 Alaska Murkowski R 101,091 Kentucky Paul R 755,706 Georgia Perdue R 1,358,088 Ohio Portman R 2,168,742 Idaho Risch R 285,596 Kansas  Roberts R 460,350 South Dakota Rounds R 140,741 Florida Rubio R 2,645,743 Nebraska Sasse R 347,636 South Carolina Scott R 757,215 Alabama Sessions R 795,606 Alabama Shelby R 968,181 Alaska Sullivan R 135,445 South Dakota Thune R 227,947 North Carolina Tillis R 1,423,259 Louisiana  Vitter R 715,415 Mississippi Wicker R 709,626 Wisconsin Johnson R 1,125,999 total for all Republicans:     45,036,856