Mitt Romney has been actively cultivating a persona as someone reliably independent, unafraid of rocking the boat when necessary, and brave enough to take the heat for bucking his party when warranted.
Before Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination became official, I wrote Sen. Romney to ask that he do what Republicans had insisted upon when a vacancy occurred during the waning days of Barack Obama’s presidency: Let the voters decide via the upcoming presidential election.
It isn’t the first time I’ve written to Romney (more accurately, Romney’s office). To his credit, he always responds with enough detail to confirm that whoever did the writing actually did read my message. In the matter of Barrett’s candidacy, he offered this constitutional parry: “The Constitution requires the president to appoint Supreme Court justices with the ‘advice and consent’ of the Senate…”
Romney’s interpretation, as he told me, was that his constitutional duty required that he agree to the process. That interpretation leaves out the fact that the Constitution does not say that the Senate must vote on the nominations.
Granted, politics isn’t tiddlywinks, but does fairness have no sway in decision-making? Surely Romney is aware that Obama’s nominee sat unvetted for many months. Further, as he is also surely aware, over the past 50 years, Republican presidents have seated 15 of 19 Supreme Court justices — and four of them were nominated by presidents who lost the popular vote. But, in Romney’s view, the constitutional mandate requires his acquiescence.
The question becomes a great deal less about constitutional duty than partisan advantage when viewed in a slightly different light: Romney formally had declared President Donald Trump unfit to hold the presidency. He eloquently affirmed that Trump’s actions had satisfied the definition of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” as set forth in the Constitution for purposes of impeachment.
So, if a person Romney deems unfit to hold the office of United States president nominates a Supreme Court justice, which is a lifetime appointment, shouldn’t that nomination be suspect as the issue of an incompetent executive? Apparently, Romney’s scruples don’t really override his partisan objectives.
Brave departures from Republican orthodoxy? Let’s see. Absent a formidable Republican challenger for Romney’s Utah Senate seat, his vote to convict Trump had zero chance of hurting his electoral prospects. What’s more, and he acknowledged this explicitly when he voted on the impeachment, he could vote to convict secure in the knowledge that the motion would fail.
Mitt Romney is, first and foremost, a politician with high hopes for future success. Is he “brave” and “principled?” I’d say only to the extent that his posture makes him appear so.
Thomas Walker
Thomas (Tom) Walker is a Salt Lake City native. After many years working in the hospitality industry, he went to work teaching skiing with Vail Resorts in Park City. An avid lifelong (so far) skier, he also is a board member of the Alta Historical Society.