Garland meets Dems, Senate recesses, groups amp up pressure
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., left, puts his arm around Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland during a meeting in his office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday.
WASHINGTON >> Merrick Garland has met with two supportive Senate Democratic leaders and spoken by phone to more of his Republican opponents. But he’s moved no closer to weakening the GOP barricade against changing his status from Supreme Court nominee to justice.
President Barack Obama’s pick to fill the late Antonin Scalia’s seat made his first courtesy calls on Capitol Hill Thursday, receiving predictably favorable reviews from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Patrick Leahy, top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Yet if anything, GOP leaders dug in even further against considering his nomination, and senators left town for a two-week recess.
Saying that Garland’s confirmation “could fundamentally alter the direction of the court for a generation,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Republicans would “act as a check and balance” to prevent Obama from tilting the court’s 4-4 balance in the liberal direction and move on to other issues.
The No. 2 Senate GOP leader, John Cornyn of Texas, branded as “completely unacceptable” talk by a few Republican senators of considering Garland during a lame duck session should a Democrat win the White House in November’s elections.
“To do it in a lame duck would to me be completely illegitimate,” Cornyn said, citing Senate GOP leaders’ insistence that as a matter of principle, the chamber will only consider a nominee by whoever becomes the next president.
Such statements have left Garland as a long-shot to win approval this year.
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For Democrats, the day was an early salvo in their campaign to make Garland, a mild-mannered jurist with sterling credentials, the best-known victim of Republican obstruction and a household name in every election battleground state. They also sought to link the Senate GOP’s stubbornness to Donald Trump, the party’s leading presidential candidate and a source of nightmares for some Republican strategists who fear he’ll lose and bring down congressional candidates, too.
“If Republicans continue to stand in the way and refuse to do their job, it will only be because they want Donald Trump to pick the next nominee,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., among a crowd of Senate Democrats who used the Supreme Court steps as a backdrop to underscore their calls for Republicans to give Garland a hearing.
Garland met privately with Leahy, D-Vt., and then Reid, D-Nev., but said nothing to the swarms of reporters following him.
“I just told him to be himself,” Reid said. “I think he’s willing to take whatever they can throw at him.”
Garland has spoken by phone to GOP senators including Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and James Inhofe, R-Okla., two of the seven remaining Republicans who voted in 1997 to confirm him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where he’s now chief judge. Inhofe said he would oppose Garland but told him, “It has nothing to do with you.”
With the battleground shifting to senators’ home states during the upcoming recess, each side crafted plans to shore up its supporters and torment opposing senators over the next two weeks.
Obama tried to win over key interest groups and activists, holding a conference call to explain that “he hopes that this would be a priority that people all across the country would share,” spokesman Josh Earnest said.
Liberal groups’ plans include teachers holding rallies in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Lima, Ohio, aimed at Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio; union members mobilizing in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and targeting Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa.; and activists attending town hall and other Iowa events staged by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a key opponent of confirming an Obama court pick.
Former White House aides and other Democrats formed the Constitutional Responsibility Project, which will coordinate liberal groups’ efforts around the country. They also created a website, www.weneednine.org, where visitors can “learn about the unprecedented obstruction of the Republican Senate.”
On the other side, the Judicial Crisis Network said it will launch a two-week, $2 million ad campaign on television, radio and the Internet on Monday supporting Grassley, Portman and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., who all face re-election in November. Also targeted are Democratic lawmakers in Colorado, North Dakota and West Virginia, with ads tying them to positions a more liberal court might take, such as weakening gun rights.
In addition, anti-abortion groups including Susan B. Anthony List and Concerned Women for America formed a coalition and started www.ProtectTheCourt.com. The group said its goal was “to rally around pro-life senators as they hold firm in ensuring that the American people, not President Obama and his pro-abortion allies, get a say” in filling the court vacancy.
Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
13 responses to “Garland meets Dems, Senate recesses, groups amp up pressure”
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“The group said its goal was ‘to rally around pro-life senators as they hold firm in ensuring that the American people, not President Obama and his pro-abortion allies, get a say’ in filling the court vacancy.”
The American people already got their say in deciding who gets to fill the vacancy when they elected Obama in 2012.
The constitution says otherwise. The president nominates. The Senate approves. Two parties must agree or nothing happens. Get it?
Must the Republicans agree? No. Will the Republicans fold? Not unless they just want to hand the presidential nomination to Trump whose followers are already beyond angry at the GOP for accommodating Obama’s immigration policies.
Getting close to the deadline…that is end of Obama’s term in sight with absolutely nothing to show for on his legacy list.
He could have cured cancer and you would probably ask why he didn’t cure diabetes. Your agenda has been in plain sight from Day One.
You are reading only what you think it says. Willfully being an obstructionist, Mitch, is not in the spirit of the constitution. Mitch is just a senile old whiner who likes to get his way, basically a crybaby.
Have to laugh at the old fool when he says “The american people have spoken.” No Mitch, only you are talking shibai. American people expect you to do your job and give the man a fair hearing. Sad to say when you are a crybaby, a fair hearing is very hard to get.
Mitch needs to admit what we all know, his senility is showing badly, becoming more mentally challenged every day. Should resign.
I have the feeling you’d be singing a different tune if Romney won in 2012. I guarantee it.
Whomever chose to put Harry Reid’s photo at the top of this article made a great choice. Reid for years acted on behalf of the president to block all republican proposals. I have absolutely no doubt that, if we had a republican president and he were still the senate’s president, he’d be blocking this very person from confirmation. Our political system is broken. Unfortunately, I see no one out there who can bring our nation together.
You have no doubt, even though Senate Democrats never failed to provide hearings or an up or down vote? That’s quite a scholarly analysis you made there. There’s no basis in history or fact of course, but why let that stop you?
Hey Harry Reid ,why don’t you ask Uncle Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer about all the “Shenanigans” they gave to Bush’s Nomination!!Naughty,naughty Boys!
YeP What goes around comes around!! Now the Dems are crying,because the Republicans are giving the Democrats the same Medicine ….Bunch of hipsters!! The Democrat Party are the main reason for all the division we see in our country today and we need to Take it Back before it’s too late!
My message to the Senate Leader:Eh Mitch? even if you decide to have the hearings on Barry’s nomination,have it! It doesn’t mean you need to confirm the nomination !Just go thru the motions! Yes ! You are SPOT ON! When it comes to letting the People decide on the next SCOTUS….Hey! who knows, it could after all ,be Hillary who would pick the next Supreme! So for now Mitch,Stay firm! and….. Hold your ground!
If you are suggesting that a SCOTUS nominee was ever denied a hearing and an up or down vote before, you are lying. This is the first time this has ever happened. After Mrs. Clinton wins by a landslide – and the Senate hopefully switches to Democratic control – Mr. McConnell and his fellow obstructionists will be wishing for a centrist like Merrick Garland. That’s not what they’ll get from President Clinton. Go Trump! And “take it back” from who? There were elections and elections have consequences.
Sad to say mentally challenged, red headed step child, senior crybaby, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky just can’t stand it if he can’t have his way. As a former “King of Pork” he is only in this for himself. He fails to understand the majority of Americans are sick of his petty politics, obstructionist attitude.
We all know Mitch is suffering from the onset of Alzheimers, senility, and Dementia, the exact reason why Mitch should admit he is no longer capable of acting rational, should resign.
It is times like this when utterly clueless bureaucrats make the whole country look bad, that term limits are the answer. Eight years total government service and you are gone. Elected bureaucrats are just like a baby diaper, full of it, need to be changed often.
Is someone filming a Blues Brother sequel at the Capitol?
Hey, I get it! You’re making fun of Senator Reid because he had an eye injury that left him almost totally blind in one eye! You’re funny!