Rain - I tried to address McConnell's honesty above. Let me be more explicit. He's not being honest. He's claiming an unwritten rule that has never existed in the hopes that the debate will be about the rule and not about an Obama nominee. It's working. People are arguing about whether Anthony Kennedy was acted upon with even less time and not about the virtues of a nominee and whether that timeframe is really pertinent because he was eplacing the Bork nomination.
Here's the danger McConnell is trying to avoid: What if Obama nominates someone everybody agrees is a moderate? Then McConnell is in the position of having to unreasonably object to a moderate even though the nominee is broadly respected. There are really good Circuit and Appeals court judges appointed by Democrats who were approved unanimously by the Senate. So now they can't even vote on the nominee who two years ago they thought was just fine?
What if this Obama nominee is Latino or Asian, the two fstest growing ethnic groups in the country? What if it's the Asian version of Kagen, who Scalia, by the way, urged the Obama administration to appoint even though he knew her politics were opposite his? Scalia wanted her on the court because he thought she was really smart Then the GOP is put in the position of insulting one of these groups both of which they have to make inroads into if they havd any hope of winning not just now but for the foreseeable future. That's what McConnell is worried about.