March 30, 2016 11:48 AM UTC

Cory Gardner: Ready To Play Ball on SCOTUS Yet?

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• by: Colorado Pols

In the weeks since the sudden death of conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Colorado’s junior U.S. Senator Cory Gardner has had varying responses to the question of whether he would consider a nominee from President Barack Obama in the final year of Obama’s presidency. After an initial statement that appeared to leave an opening for an “acceptable” nominee, Gardner slammed the door on any consideration of a nominee from Obama well before Judge Merrick Garland was nominated.

In a meeting with the Grand Junction Sentinel’s editorial board yesterday, Gardner appeared firm on this latter obstructionist stance, even as the polls say it’s a huge political mistake:

Despite national polls indicating that even a majority of Republican voters say the Senate should hold hearings on President Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland, Gardner remains steadfast in his belief that confirmation should wait until after the election.

The American people deserve a voice in this process, Gardner said. Asked to consider that the American people have already spoken — twice — by electing Obama, Garner countered that voters have also given the Senate a Republican majority to “advise and consent” on the process as it chooses.

Why not hold hearings, even if just to reject the nominee?

“If it’s a political show, I’m not interested,” Gardner said.

So, if the will of the people is expressly important and Hillary Clinton becomes the next president, the Senate should forgo a lame-duck confirmation of Garland and wait for Clinton to nominate someone else — likely younger and more liberal than the moderate Garland?

“That’s exactly right,” Gardner said…

But as Politico reports today, the terrible reception from the voting public the GOP’s stonewalling of Obama’s Supreme Court nominee has received, especially after the moderate and popular Judge Garland was nominated, could mean a very different outcome when the Senate returns from Easter recess next week.

With small cracks emerging in the Republican Supreme Court blockade — and private indications from some GOP senators that they’d likely back Merrick Garland if he ever did come up for a vote — the White House is preparing to press its perceived political advantage when senators return from their recess next week…

White House aides have expanded their universe of potential Republican “yes” votes from their original three-category breakdown of vulnerable incumbents up for reelection, moderates and older institutionalists. Their target list now includes the six Republicans who voted for Garland’s confirmation to the D.C. Circuit Court in 1997 — including Utah’s Orrin Hatch and Mississippi’s Thad Cochran — and off-cycle Republicans in states where the other senator is a Democrat who can help carry the attack back home. That smaller list includes Indiana’s Dan Coats (who’s retiring, and also voted for Garland in 1997), Nevada’s Dean Heller and Colorado’s Cory Gardner. [Pols emphasis]

Polling clearly shows that Republicans overstepped by planting the flag against any Obama nominee before the nominee was even known, and the number of GOP Senators willing to at least meet with Judge Garland has continued to grow. Sen. Gardner, for his part, is very sensitive to such changing political realities, and much less dogmatically committed than, say, his successor in Congress Rep. Ken Buck.

If the GOP’s SCOTUS stonewall does come apart when the Senate reconvenes next week, watch for Gardner to keep himself on the winning side.