Court blockade

Grassley defends Supreme Court blockade

'We’re not going to drop any nominee into that election-year cauldron,' the Judiciary Committee chairman says.

By Seung Min Kim

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley — under daily fire from Democrats for his refusal to hold confirmation hearings for deceased Justice Antonin Scalia’s yet-to-be-named successor — mounted a lengthy defense Thursday of his controversial decision.

Repeatedly invoking Vice President Joe Biden’s comments in 1992 that a Supreme Court nominee shouldn’t be taken up in the “cauldron” of a campaign season, Grassley showed no signs of backing down from a near-uniform pledge from Senate Republicans to ignore whomever President Barack Obama nominates.

Grassley also dismissed a much-discussed potential strategy of Democrats to nominate a judge who has already been confirmed overwhelmingly, or even unanimously, by the Senate. Obama is reportedly considering a small slate of federal judges who fit that category. One believed to be on the shortlist is Jane Kelly, a circuit judge from Iowa whom Grassley has praised.

But the Judiciary Committee chairman called that “misguided logic” and asserted that “everybody” knows that a high court nominee will not get confirmed in the final year of Obama’s presidency.

“We’re not going to drop any nominee into that election-year cauldron,” said Grassley (R-Iowa). “I’m certainly not going to let it happen to the good people of Iowa.”

The committee session Thursday — one of its weekly sessions to discuss routine matters, which usually garner little media attention — was the first such business meeting held by the Judiciary Committee since Scalia died last month. Senate Republicans swiftly announced that no nominee will be taken up by the chamber until a new president is elected and sworn in.

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, lamented that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) acted so quickly to announce his decision to block hearings.

“A lot of us would like to have had at least the memorial and the burial of the justice before that debate started," Leahy said.

Since that decision, Senate Democrats have launched daily assaults on Republicans, and Grassley in particular. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has criticized Grassley regularly in floor speeches, and the party has parroted Grassley’s decades-old remarks on the imperative of senators to take up a Supreme Court nominee. Democrats also met this week with a potential challenger to Grassley for reelection, former Iowa Democratic Lt. Gov. Patty Judge.

It's all intended to wear Grassley down.

Grassley shrugged off Reid’s persistent jabs, saying: “We’ve seen that kind of thing from him before. It’s all about using this process to score political points. It’s that simple.”

McConnell came to Grassley’s defense earlier Thursday, after days of Democrats battering the Judiciary Committee chairman over his refusal to hold confirmation hearings.

“Here’s a chairman who’s worked to give voices to the voiceless,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “He’s also got a passion for letting Iowans and the American people be heard. No wonder he’s working so hard now to give the people a voice in the direction of the Supreme Court.”