LOL. Obama has a right to nominate anyone. Senate has a right to not confirm anyone.
The Senate has the right to deny any vote at their own political risk. But that is it! There is no obligation to confirm an appointee immediately and no statement in the constitution about the timeline of the Senate's obligation. And any insinuation that there is is simply hackary. Dems would be doing the same thing if an R was in office. Get over it.
If the GOP keeps the seat vacant all year, Democrats will see to it that the GOP pays in November 2016.
That's very optimistic of you.
Remember when the Republicans throwing a temper tantrum and shutting down the government was supposed to hurt them? Remember when the country despised Republicans for getting us into trillions of debt, destroying the economy, and starting endless wars, then turned to them as glorious saviors 2 years later?
The incidents you name are not Supreme Court nomination controversies. But this is one: the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings in 1991.
The allegations of sexual harassment dominated the national consciousness. High school teachers canceled their lesson plans and we just went from class to class watching the hearings on TV. There were few women in Congress at the time and women across the country were outraged over the all-male Senate Judiciary Committee's terrible treatment of Anita Hill. The senior senator of my home state, Patty Murray, was serving in the state legislature at the time and became so furious watching the hearings she decided to run for the U.S. Senate. Then-Rep. Barbara Boxer grew similarly incensed when she was part of a group of Democratic House women who attempted to storm a Senate meeting to discuss hearings for Anita Hill. They were greeted with a closed door and told "no one ever gets in here." The 1992 elections became known as "The Year of the Woman" because:
http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/Assembling-Amplifying-Ascending/Women-Decade/Left unmentioned was that almost all of these newly elected women to Congress were Democrats. They became known as the "Anita Hill Class." The gains filtered down to the state and local level as well. While there were other factors behind the historic gains women made that year (which have not been replicated since), the hearings were certainly an important part of it.
So a Supreme Court nomination controversy can have an effect on an election. I've seen it happen.
