Almost immediately after being nominated, aspiring Supreme Court justices start getting to know all 100 U.S Senators. Kind of like speed dating, the meetings are constant, forced, and sometimes awkward.
Sen. Cory Booker probably knows that better than most. As I write, the New Jersey Democrat is meeting with Judge Neil Gorsuch behind closed doors at his Dirksen office. And while that date’s private, Booker has already given the nominee the cold shoulder.
Before his name started floating around as a potential 2020 challenger, Booker used to think that every judicial nominee deserved a vote.
Booker said as much during last year’s GOP blockade of President Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland. “I’m a big believer if the situations were reversed and there was a Republican President,” Booker told NJTV News last March, “I would be calling…for an up-or-down vote.”
But that’s not what Booker’s doing right now. Instead after Trump announced the nominee, the senator started over thinking and talking cryptically. A year after promising he’d follow through even for a Republican nominee, Booker says Gorsuch “falls far outside of the mainstream.”
Even after nine other Democrats agreed to advance Gorsuch, he’s stayed completely mum on the issue. Of course, no one says Booker had to vote for Gorsuch. But it does seem a bit hypocritical not to follow through on his promise from last year.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
