Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Az) today called for his GOP colleagues to confirm Judge Merrick Garland as an associate Supreme Court Justice.
In an interview with Politico on Thursday, Flake said it may be time to approve Garland — who is relatively moderate and well-respected on both sides of the aisle — during the lame-duck session if Clinton wins the election. Garland has been sitting in limbo since March, when he was first nominated to fill the vacancy left when Justice Antonin Scalia died in February.
"I said if we were in a position like we were in in '96 and we pretty much knew the outcome that we ought to move forward. But I think we passed that awhile ago," said Flake, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "If Hillary Clinton is president-elect then we should move forward with hearings in the lame duck. That's what I'm encouraging my colleagues to do."
I think it’s been a foregone conclusion for quite some time that this is exactly the maneuver that Grassley and crew would pull when Clinton wins the election, a lame duck confirmation hearing and vote for the centrist jurist. So the question then becomes:
(Update — sorry about butchering the poll. I do wish an option to edit polls was available because as others have noted, there’s no HELL NO, CONFIRM HIM NOW option in poll.)