Republican Lindsey Graham, a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, tonight said he won’t vote for an Obama Supreme Court nominee unless that nominee is a “consensus choice” who can win the votes of at least half the Senate’s 54 Republicans. Otherwise, Graham said, he’ll block any Obama replacement for the late Antonin Scalia as payback for the Democrats’ “nuclear option” power play that removed the filibuster for (non-Supreme Court) judicial nominees.
“The normal rule that I’ve lived by is that you vote for qualified people even though you disagree with their philosophy,” Graham told reporters before the Republican presidential debate.
I’ve been a big believer in “elections have consequences.” Name one person who’s said that more than I have. I voted for Sotomayor and Kagan and Alito and Roberts. I told the president and the Democratic leadership that if you abuse power and change the rules for appellate judges and executive appointments, going to a majority, you’ll pay a price with me. So here’s the price. I’m not going to vote for a Barack Obama nominee unless he’s a consensus choice. He’s not going to put on the court a liberal who’s well qualified. If Hillary Clinton wins the White House and she puts a liberal who’s well qualified, I’ll vote for them.
I asked Graham, “So your position now, for the rest of President Obama’s term, is basically payback for the nuclear option?”
“Yeah,” Graham answered. “It’s ‘I told you if you did this … you’ll pay a price with me.’ I drew a red line and I actually meant it.”
“Elections have consequences,” Graham added, “and abuses of power have consequences.”
