Filling the Supreme Court Vacancy

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Now, on another matter, Mr. President, last week, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee said that some would like to do ``some sort of a pretend hearing'' on the President's Supreme Court nomination. He went on to dismiss the idea by noting that the Senate ``is not a pretend office.'' Apparently, he was overruled.

Later today, Democrats will have what he called a ``pretend hearing.'' Senate Democrats initially invited a witness who, at the beginning of the Bush administration, wrote this: ``The Senate should not act on any Supreme Court vacancies that might occur until after the next presidential election.'' He also wrote that this would be a ``responsible exercise of the Senate's constitutional power.'' Apparently, that witness is no longer available--interesting.

The would-be witness is Abner Mikva, a former Democratic Congressman, Federal judge, and White House Counsel. He wrote these words in the second year of President George W. Bush's first term. It was not, like the situation today, in the eighth year of a term-limited President.

Democrats certainly have a complicated history when it comes to their own words and the Supreme Court. They have the Schumer standard: Don't consider a President's nominee 1\1/2\ years before the end of his final term. They have the Biden rule: Don't consider a President's nominee before he has even finished his first term. Now they have the Mikva mandate: Don't consider a President's nominee from, basically, the moment he takes office.

It seems the more we hear from Democrats about the Supreme Court, the more we are reminded, by comparison, of how reasonable and commonsense the Republican position is today.

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