Meanwhile, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican, said Thursday he was withdrawing his name as a potential Supreme Court nominee. Grassley responded that he didn’t care if he goes down in history.
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Though the review process is in its initial phases and it is unclear whether the governor could ultimately emerge as the president’s pick, even the prospect of his nomination poses a hard dilemma for Senate Republicans who have promised not to consider any nomination before November’s elections.
Obama and his Democratic allies are trying to pressure Republican leaders to abandon their position to not conduct hearings or hold votes for the president’s nominee.
Sen. Donald Humason, a Westfield Republican, said, “I think we have better things to do in the Massachusetts Senate”.
Senate Republicans sought to shift the focus away from the Supreme Court fight on Thursday and move on to other legislative business, while their Democratic colleagues struggled to gain some momentum in the standoff over the court vacancy. The president or members of his staff have consulted with every member of the Judiciary Committee or their aides since Scalia’s passing on February 13. He said he would pick someone who recognizes the court’s limits and knows that a judge’s job is to interpret law, not make it.
We don’t have a legislative tool because we’re not in the majority, except for shutting down the government, but we’re not going to do what they do. “Let’s put pressure on the Senate, let’s support the president”. Obama’s appointee could pivot the court to the left for the first time in decades. “But from what we have heard, people are excited about the opportunity to voice their opinion through the ballot box, whether they’re Democrats, whether they’re Republicans”.
The White House and its allies believe the real work is on the ground in places like Ohio, Wisconsin and New Hampshire – states where Republican senators face tough re-election campaigns – as well as Nevada, Pennsylvania and Florida, where independent voters often hold sway. “They’re pretty sheepish about it”, he said.
Next week, Grassley and McConnell plan to meet with the president to discuss the nomination process.
They insist that the current debate is not opportunistic and that their argument would remain consistent if they reversed roles with the Republican majority.
Hopefully the conclusion of all this political maneuvering will lead to a true progressive on the Supreme Court, although at this point, we’ll even settle for a moderate Democrat.
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But Reid spent just seconds on the issue saying, “I join the Republican leader on the need to address the scourge of opioid addiction”, before making a speech about the court vacancy and quoting McConnell back to himself. In fact, he says Democrats in the past, including Harry Reid and Joe Biden, have favored the approach.
