Antonin Scalia

More than anything else right now President Obama wants to insure that his successor is a Democrat. If the next president is a Republican, everything President Obama was able to achieve via executive order would be undone post-haste, and his most important legislative accomplishments would undoubtedly be scaled back or reversed. The negative consequences of GOP control of both Congress and the White House would be catastrophic.  Until the untimely death of Antonin Scalia, Obama’s 2016 electoral calculations were even simpler.

Conservatives intellectual defense of the Senate refusing to perform its "advice and consent" duty raises the question, which other constitutional provisions did the Founders intend to be operational only in time frames when the Republican Party holds the presidency?