Grassley holds firm on GOP vow over Scalia seat
All sides converge on Iowa senator in nomination battle
WASHINGTON — As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa would typically be the one to oversee a rigorous inspection of a potential Supreme Court justice.
But with the vacancy on the high court created by the death of Antonin Scalia, it is Grassley who finds himself in a political crucible. He is tasked with enforcing the vow of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that Scalia’s seat be left vacant until a new president is sworn in, and Grassley’s position at the center of a fight that’s polarizing even by Washington standards has invited heightening scrutiny back home over the impasse and a campaign by Democrats pressuring him to break ranks.
Grassley was unmoved after an hourlong sitdown at the White House.
“Whether everybody in the meeting today wanted to admit it, we all know that considering a nomination in the middle of a heated presidential campaign is bad for the nominee, bad for the court, bad for the process and ultimately bad for the nation,” he said.
The White House and Senate Democrats have singled out Grassley in part because of comments he made in Iowa recently that they believed showed he might be open to considering a nomination.
Grassley has been in Washington long enough to recognize the Democrats’ plan. His aides questioned why President Barack Obama’s initial invitation to discuss the vacancy at the White House on Tuesday was sent only to their boss and to his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont. Grassley would attend only if McConnell did as well, a person familiar with the discussions over the meeting said.
In that meeting, Obama offered Grassley the opportunity to suggest potential nominees he might consider acceptable, one he turned down.
“Senator Grassley and I made it clear that we don’t intend to take up a nominee or to have a hearing,” McConnell told reporters after the meeting.
Still, on the right there is some apprehension about whether Grassley, the first non-lawyer to lead the committee, might cave under the pressure.
Bob Vander Plaats, president of the social conservative advocacy group Family Leader and an influential leader of Iowa evangelicals, said he recently encouraged the senator “to stay the course.”
Grassley has only doubled down on his stance as pressure from the left mounted. After a meeting between McConnell and the Judiciary Committee’s 11 Republican members, Grassley released a letter from them underlining their plan “to exercise our constitutional authority to withhold consent on any nominee.”
Aides say he is guided not by pressure from party leaders or the conservative base but by his own deep-seated belief that the unexpected election-year vacancy offers the country a rare opportunity for a national debate about the role of the Supreme Court.