Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid warned Monday Sen. Chuck Grassley’s decision not to hold a hearing for President Obama’s eventual Supreme Court nominee would taint Grassley’s record in the Senate forever.
“He’s the first chair of this important committee to take the unprecedented step of refusing to meet, hold hearings or a vote on the president’s nominee,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “It will not benefit him, his committee, the state of Iowa, or this great country. If he doesn’t … history will never forgive this unprecedented mistake. History will never forget this misstep by Grassley.”
Grassley, R-Iowa, is siding with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on the nomination process. Grassley said his panel will not hold hearings on President Obama’s nominee to the high court, no matter who is named, and most Republicans say the next president should get to nominate a candidate to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
Reid, D-Nev., used his Senate floor speech to note that newspaper editorials in Iowa have been critical of Grassley’s decision. Grassley is running for a seventh term in November and could be hurt by the backlash to the GOP’s move.
Reid said further that Grassley’s decision diminishes his recently achieved record of casting 7,500 consecutive Senate votes, which has helped bolster Grassley’s longtime reputation as a dedicated and hard-working senator who enjoys broad support in the Hawkeye State.
“What good are 7,500 consecutive votes if you simply sweep the vote you don’t like under the rug,” Reid said. “It taints this remarkable achievement.”
Grassley went to the Senate floor shortly after Reid to defend the decision, which he noted was one that Democrats advocated when a Republican president was in the White House.
“Letting the American people decide this is a fair approach, it’s a reasonable approach and it an historical approach,” Grassley said. “It’s the approach the other side advocated when the shoe was on the other foot and it’s the approach the American people deserve.”
Grassley said gun rights, religious rights and other major issues could be jeopardized by “another liberal judge on the court.”
“Voters deserve the right to be heard,” Grassley said. “The American people want a reasonable justice. A person who will make the right decisions.”
Democrats have said they plan to extract a political price from Republicans for refusing to take up the nomination, and that Grassley is a top target.
A Public Policy Polling survey taken in late February shows Grassley leading a potential Democratic opponent, former governor and current Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, by just seven points.
