Grassley: Pressuring me on Supreme Court nominee ‘won’t work’

Republican senators held firm Thursday on their vow to deny a hearing to President Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court.

“Everyone knows whoever is nominated in this election cycle isn’t getting confirmed; everyone knows it,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said. “So why the charade?

{mosads}”Why all this ‘outrage’ about a hearing? Why the ‘demands’ for a hearing that everyone knows would never result in a confirmation? It’s because the other side is committed to using this process to score as many political points as possible. That’s it. Plain and simple.”

Obama is expected to announce his nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia any day and has reportedly been interviewing candidates.

During a business meeting of the Judiciary Committee Thursday, Grassley said he feels the White House is trying to pressure him into considering a nominee by vetting a judge — Jane Kelly of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals — whom he’s supported in the past for a lower court position.

“We’re even seeing reports that the White House’s selection process is guided by the raw political calculation of what they think will exert the most political pressure on me,” he said.

“It’s even been suggested that if the White House selects a judge from Iowa, then I’d try to convince my colleagues that it’s a good idea to hold hearings,” he said. “We’ve been up front and clear, but in case there is any confusion over whether this obvious political ploy would work, let me be crystal clear: It won’t.” 

Democrats argue the Senate has a responsibility under the Constitution to consider the nominee, but GOP lawmakers see things differently, arguing the vacancy should be left to the next president.

Grassley, as he has done repeatedly in recent days, quoted at length from a floor speech that Vice President Biden made in 1992 while serving as a senator from Delaware.

In that speech, Biden said then-President George H.W. Bush should wait until after that year’s presidential election to make a Supreme Court nomination should a vacancy arise.

“‘Can you imagine dropping a nominee … into that fight, into that cauldron in the middle of a presidential year,'” Grassley said, quoting Biden.

Democrats on the committee pushed back against Grassley, denying that he’s being made a target.

“I know my good friend from Iowa said this effort has been directed at him; it’s not about him or any one of us,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), the committee’s ranking Democrat. “It’s about the Constitution. That’s more important than any one of us.”

Leahy chastised Grassley for holding committee meetings behind closed doors and for announcing to the press that the committee had unanimously decided not to consider a nominee.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he suspects there are GOP members who want a debate on the nomination. He quoted Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who said on the Senate floor that he likes a good scrap.

“Well, let’s have one,” Schumer said. “Let’s have a good debate, let’s have the kind of serious, detailed, thorough debate — call it a scrap if you will — that we’ve had in the past.”