President Barack Obama should nominate a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and the Senate should consider the appointment, Sen. Mark Kirk. R-Ill., announced on Monday, splitting from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and GOP presidential contenders.
The GOP-controlled Senate should give that nominee a hearing, Kirk, facing a tough re-election bid this year, wrote in a Chicago Sun-Times op-ed posted online Monday. That nominee should not “speak or act in the extreme,” Kirk wrote.
“I recognize the right of the president, be it Republican or Democrat, to place before the Senate a nominee for the Supreme Court and I fully expect and look forward to President Obama advancing a nominee for the Senate to consider,” Kirk wrote.
“I also recognize my duty as a Senator to either vote in support or opposition to that nominee following a fair and thorough hearing along with a complete and transparent release of all requested information.”
Sen. Mark Kirk op-ed: Scalia replacement must ‘bridge differences’
McConnell sparked an election-year controversy when he said — within hours after news of Scalia’s sudden death at a West Texas resort broke on Feb. 13 — that the vacancy should be unfilled “until we have a new president.”
McConnell’s challenge to Obama’s appointment authority came just as Republican presidential rivals were debating in Greenville, S.C. Donald Trump said if Obama sends a name to the Senate for considerations, the Senate should run out the clock on an Obama nominee by “delay, delay, delay” until he is out of office.
By taking the position that Obama — with some 300 days still left in office — should not send a nominee to the Senate, McConnell enraged Democrats and created an issue seized by Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., the front-runner in the three-way Democratic Illinois Senate primary on March 15.
Kirk is seen as one of the most vulnerable senators facing voters this November, and Duckworth has been pressuring Kirk to say whether he supports McConnell’s gambit.
That Kirk, who represents Obama’s adopted home state, staked out this turf is not surprising. Kirk’s prospects for a second term depend on votes from independents and cross-over Democrats.
Following Scalia’s death, Kirk implicitly took a shot at McConnell when he declined to close ranks with him, saying in a statement: “The political debate erupting about prospective nominees to fill the vacancy is unseemly. Let us take the time to honor his life before the inevitable debate erupts.”
Kirk’s op-ed urging Obama to send the Senate a nominee was timed for after Scalia’s funeral on Saturday, and before the Senate meets for the first time this week since the death of the conservative Supreme Court justice.
Kirk’s split with McConnell is noteworthy because most of the other endangered Republican senators facing 2016 election battles sided with McConnell. That group includes Sen. Kelly Ayotte , R-N.H., who was headlining a fundraising lunch with Kirk on Monday at the Chicago Club, 81 E. Van Buren St.
“I believe the Senate should not move forward with the confirmation process until the American people have spoken by electing a new president,” Ayotte said in a Feb. 14 statement.
Obama returned to Springfield on Feb. 10, in a nostalgic visit to the State Capitol where he served in the Illinois Senate. In his speech to a joint session of the Illinois House and Senate, the president deplored the growing partisanship that has spawned “a poisonous political climate.”
Kirk noted Obama’s plea to find common ground and rise above partisanship in his op-ed.
“My sincerest hope is that President Obama nominates someone who captures the sentiment he spoke about before the Illinois General Assembly this month — a nominee who can bridge differences, a nominee that finds common ground and a nominee that does not speak or act in the extreme,” Kirk wrote in his op-ed.
“Such a selection by the President would demonstrate a break from the rancor and partisanship of Washington and a real commitment to a new beginning even as his own term nears its end.”
In a Feb. 18 Washington Post op-ed, McConnell and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which handles Supreme Court confirmations, said the lame-duck Obama should be denied the potential of replacing Scalia.
“Given that we are in the midst of the presidential election process, we believe that the American people should seize the opportunity to weigh in on whom they trust to nominate the next person for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court,” they wrote.
The GOP-controlled Senate should give that nominee a hearing, Kirk, facing a tough re-election bid this year, wrote in a Chicago Sun-Times op-ed posted online Monday. That nominee should not “speak or act in the extreme,” Kirk wrote.
“I recognize the right of the president, be it Republican or Democrat, to place before the Senate a nominee for the Supreme Court and I fully expect and look forward to President Obama advancing a nominee for the Senate to consider,” Kirk wrote.
“I also recognize my duty as a Senator to either vote in support or opposition to that nominee following a fair and thorough hearing along with a complete and transparent release of all requested information.”
Sen. Mark Kirk op-ed: Scalia replacement must ‘bridge differences’
McConnell sparked an election-year controversy when he said — within hours after news of Scalia’s sudden death at a West Texas resort broke on Feb. 13 — that the vacancy should be unfilled “until we have a new president.”
McConnell’s challenge to Obama’s appointment authority came just as Republican presidential rivals were debating in Greenville, S.C. Donald Trump said if Obama sends a name to the Senate for considerations, the Senate should run out the clock on an Obama nominee by “delay, delay, delay” until he is out of office.
By taking the position that Obama — with some 300 days still left in office — should not send a nominee to the Senate, McConnell enraged Democrats and created an issue seized by Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., the front-runner in the three-way Democratic Illinois Senate primary on March 15.
Kirk is seen as one of the most vulnerable senators facing voters this November, and Duckworth has been pressuring Kirk to say whether he supports McConnell’s gambit.
That Kirk, who represents Obama’s adopted home state, staked out this turf is not surprising. Kirk’s prospects for a second term depend on votes from independents and cross-over Democrats.
Following Scalia’s death, Kirk implicitly took a shot at McConnell when he declined to close ranks with him, saying in a statement: “The political debate erupting about prospective nominees to fill the vacancy is unseemly. Let us take the time to honor his life before the inevitable debate erupts.”
Kirk’s op-ed urging Obama to send the Senate a nominee was timed for after Scalia’s funeral on Saturday, and before the Senate meets for the first time this week since the death of the conservative Supreme Court justice.
Kirk’s split with McConnell is noteworthy because most of the other endangered Republican senators facing 2016 election battles sided with McConnell. That group includes Sen. Kelly Ayotte , R-N.H., who was headlining a fundraising lunch with Kirk on Monday at the Chicago Club, 81 E. Van Buren St.
“I believe the Senate should not move forward with the confirmation process until the American people have spoken by electing a new president,” Ayotte said in a Feb. 14 statement.
Obama returned to Springfield on Feb. 10, in a nostalgic visit to the State Capitol where he served in the Illinois Senate. In his speech to a joint session of the Illinois House and Senate, the president deplored the growing partisanship that has spawned “a poisonous political climate.”
Kirk noted Obama’s plea to find common ground and rise above partisanship in his op-ed.
“My sincerest hope is that President Obama nominates someone who captures the sentiment he spoke about before the Illinois General Assembly this month — a nominee who can bridge differences, a nominee that finds common ground and a nominee that does not speak or act in the extreme,” Kirk wrote in his op-ed.
“Such a selection by the President would demonstrate a break from the rancor and partisanship of Washington and a real commitment to a new beginning even as his own term nears its end.”
In a Feb. 18 Washington Post op-ed, McConnell and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which handles Supreme Court confirmations, said the lame-duck Obama should be denied the potential of replacing Scalia.
“Given that we are in the midst of the presidential election process, we believe that the American people should seize the opportunity to weigh in on whom they trust to nominate the next person for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court,” they wrote.
