The No. 2 Senate Republican, John Cornyn, flatly disagreed with them, however, siding with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and GOP leaders have seized on a Joe Biden speech from 1992 to make their case.
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Senate Democrats have launched a furious attack on Republicans for refusing a hearing or vote on whoever Barack Obama nominates to the supreme court. In remarks on the Senate floor, McConnell said, “Presidents have a right to nominate, just as the Senate has its constitutional right to provide or withhold consent”.
“I think the obligation of the Senate is to carefully consider any nominee whom the president submits”, Collins said, in a press briefing, the Hill said. “And I believe strongly this should be a referendum on who chooses in November”. Only two Senate Republicans so far have said they want to have hearings on an Obama nominee – Susan Collins of ME and Mark Kirk of IL, neither of whom are on the Judiciary committee. “And once reported to the full Senate, every Supreme Court nominee has received an up or down confirmation vote during my more than four decades in the Senate”.
Meanwhile, the Democrat Minority Leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, described Sen McConnell’s stance on the issue as “obstruction on steroids”.
Biden made his remarks in the context of reforming the entire judicial confirmation process, which, he claimed, had been marred by Justice Clarence Thomas’ contentious confirmation hearings.
He added: “You’d have to go back to 1888, when Grover Cleveland was president, to find the last time a vacancy created in a presidential election year was approved by the senate of a different party”. Biden was speaking hypothetically, the Senate was not considering a nominee at that time.
“I don’t see the point of going through the motions”.
GAYLE KING: Republican senators will meet today to gear up for a fight over the open seat on the Supreme Court. To make matters worse for the Obama White House, Biden is not the only prominent Democrat whose tune has changed.
“If someone steps down, I would highly recommend the President not name someone, not send a name up”, Biden, then the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, told the newspaper, noting how close it was to the November elections.
CRAWFORD: The current Judiciary Committee chair, Republican Chuck Grassley, immediately agreed to what he called the “Biden Rule”.
“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice”, McConnell said in a statement following Scalia’s death. Yes, the Constitution says the president “shall nominate…judges of the Supreme Court”. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
“We’ll have more to say on this” after Tuesday’s Republican meeting, McConnell told reporters. They discussed Sandoval’s interest in a nomination, and sources familiar with the discussion say Sandoval is interested in the nomination, but Reid is not pushing the idea on him.
But he stressed that Republicans controlling the Senate would also exercise their rights. They were strategizing over how to maximize pressure on Republican senators, including Ayotte, Kirk and three others seeking re-election in states Obama won in both 2008 and 2012: Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen.
