Mitch McConnell Wakes Up To Nasty Surprise: 16 GOP Senators Defect And Will Meet With Obama’s SCOTUS Nominee
Mitch McConnell Wakes Up To Nasty Surprise: 16 GOP Senators Defect And Will Meet With Obama's SCOTUS Nominee
NBC News is reporting that some Republican senators are starting to change their “tone” about Obama’s Supreme Count nominee, Merrick Garland. In spite of the “wall of opposition” brought about by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell against any nominee President Obama puts forward, a quarter of Republican senators 16 in total – have stated that they will “meet” with Garland about his nomination.
Progress? Perhaps, but only slightly. The fact remains that a majority of Republican senators will not even meet with Garland to discuss his potential nomination. This doesn’t even include putting it to a vote. This is literally just sitting down and talking with the man about potentially filling the vacant seat left by Justice Antonin Scalia following his death. Most remain completely hell-bent on blocking anybody Obama sends forward, no matter who it is.
This opposition is in spite of the fact that, according to recent polling, 61 percent of Americans believe that Republican Senators should do their job and put Garland’s nomination to a vote. The Senators remain firmly opposed to the American people who elected them. Only 31 percent agree that the next president should appoint the new justice.
Mark Kirk, the first Republican senator who has officially met with Garland, is currently up for re-election in Illinois, a blue state. After his meeting earlier today, he told
ABC News the following:
‘Obviously, I would consider voting for him. I think we should do our job’
Kirk hopes that his meeting will encourage other Republicans to “soften their position” on this issue. He has called for a “rational, adult and open-minded consideration” on Garland’s prospective nomination.
Some GOP strategists are claiming that many Republican Senators are now “softening their position” to improve their image. As NBC news notes, many want to avoid the now common perception that Republicans in Congress are “obstructionist” or “rude.” Now where would they have gotten that idea? A
Gallup poll last November put the overall approval rating of Congress at 11%, only 2% above the all-time lowest on record.
Former McCain strategist Steve Schmidt claims that “Mitch McConell’s knee-jerk response after Justice Scalia’s death is a public relations debacle for the Republican Party.” He believes that the best way to defeat Obama’s nomination, if such a path were to be taken, would’ve been to “derail it slowly over time.” Mitch McConnell went wrong, apparently, by denying him outright and refusing to work with the president in any way on the nominee, right off the bat. Now they are having a “public relations debacle,” since it’s usually common for Americans not to like people who live lavishly on their tax dollars but refuse to do their jobs.
White House aides told NBC that their current nomination strategy is what they like to call a “game of inches.” Their goal is to get “a trickle of meetings” to eventually evolve into “a cascade,” which will then build pressure for Republicans to start holding hearings. From there, they are hoping to finally secure a vote. It is clear that the beginning of this process may now be underway.
