Conservatives pounce

Conservatives pounce over Garland meetings

The backlash for Republicans who plan to meet with Obama's nominee kicks into high gear.

By Seung Min Kim and Burgess Everett

First, the right pounced on Jerry Moran after the Kansas senator cracked the door open to a hearing for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. Now, conservatives are starting to turn on John Boozman.

The Arkansas Republican will meet with Garland on Tuesday, even though he says the confirmation process should go no further beyond just courtesy meetings. But that isn’t enough for some on the right, who are upset with Boozman for merely sitting down with Garland.

“A little more than two weeks ago, Boozman vowed to join his Republican colleagues in the Senate and oppose any Supreme Court nominee while this president is in office,” FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon said Monday. “Now he is meeting with the nominee. It makes no sense. This is not the time for squeamishness or timidity.”

The backlash is similar, though not as intense, as the firestorm that faced Moran during the recess when he told Kansas voters that Garland deserved a confirmation process. Conservatives immediately went on the attack, threatening an ad campaign and perhaps even a primary challenger for Moran, who is up for reelection this fall. The former National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman then quickly backtracked on his call for hearings.

GOP leadership has not told members to deny Garland a meeting. But top Republicans aren't surprised by the intense response that the Supreme Court issue is bringing out from the right.

"Conservatives feel pretty strongly about not upsetting the balance of the Supreme Court for the next 25 years," said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. Senate Republican. "There are different sensitivities depending on where you live and where you come from."

Indeed, on Monday Moran was still taking friendly fire from the likes of Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), who lashed Moran for comments about doing his job that were "identical to the liberal Democrat talking point." Such remarks from a fellow delegation member of the same party are highly unusual.

"It is hopelessly and dangerously naïve for Senator Moran to expect that President Obama would appoint a believer in the appropriate judicial role and basic interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. I am more than pleased that Senator Moran, at least for now, is prepared to deny Judge Garland any hearing," Pompeo said.

Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund Chairwoman Jenny Beth Martin praised Moran’s change of heart in a statement Monday, but warned that her group was still keeping an eye on the senator to ensure he stands with conservatives or that they will "find a candidate who will."

The wrath of the right hasn’t been as sharp against Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, who is battling for reelection in a purple state and announced on Monday that she will meet with Garland next week. Her race has become a test case for the larger Democratic strategy of hitting vulnerable Republicans for obstructing Garland's nomination.

Ayotte will meet with Garland next Wednesday, one week after Ayotte's colleague Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) plans to meet with the nominee. Though Ayotte is the second incumbent GOP senator with a difficult reelection campaign to meet with Garland, her sit-down with him will be far different from that of Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, who's already sharply broken with his leadership by calling his colleagues "closed minded" for not taking up the nomination.

“I will meet with the president’s nominee out of courtesy and respect, and I also plan to explain my view that the people should have a voice in this important nomination through their votes in November," Ayotte said in a statement on Monday. Ayotte originally ruled out meeting with a theoretical nominee, but upon Garland's nomination she decided she would hold a meeting with him if only to explain why she does not believe he should be confirmed this year.

The Democratic group Senate Majority PAC poured $1 million in ad buys against Ayotte on TV and digital into New Hampshire in March, with the latest ad whacking her for "abandoning her constitutional duty" by refusing to call for hearings or votes on Garland. Ayotte is preparing to face New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan for the state's Senate seat, and Democrats are testing whether their political campaign against the GOP's tactics to deny Garland a hearing can help them take back the Senate in November.

Garland also plans to meet with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and a host of Senate Democrats this week.

The White House and Democratic senators see the Supreme Court fight as a game of inches, and they see the dozen or so Republicans willing to meet with Garland as the kind of incremental win that may boost their case for a hearing. But national pressure against Senate Republicans has produced little in the way of actual momentum for confirmation hearings; just Collins and Kirk support doing so before the November elections.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List, said her organization wouldn’t reflexively oppose any Senate Republican just for meeting with Garland.

“But I think that we believe very strongly that human nature will lead people to the first step, then they take the second step,” Dannenfelser added. “There needs to be some pretty strong assurances that they will go no further.”