In the growing debate over whether the Senate should vote on President Obama's forthcoming Supreme Court nomination to replace Antonin Scalia, conservatives are hinging on an argument made by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in 2007, when the tables were turned.
"We should not confirm any [George W.] Bush nominee to the Supreme Court, except in extraordinary circumstances," Schumer said at the time.
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What I said in the speech given in 2007 is simple: Democrats, after a hearing, should entertain voting no if the nominee is out of the mainstream and tries to cover that fact up. There was no hint anywhere in the speech that there shouldn't be hearings or a vote. Only that if after hearings and a vote, Democrats determined that the nominee was out of the mainstream and trying to hide it, they should have no qualms about voting no. Nor was there any hint that this idea that Democrats should oppose hard right ideologues should apply only in the fourth year of the president’s term. In fact, I said it should apply to this president, George W. Bush, or any future president whenever they nominated such a candidate. [Medium]
For what it's worth, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also holds a slightly different view on nominations than he used to, as CBS News notes.
"It is time to move away from advise and obstruct and get back to advise and consent," the then-whip said in 2005, as Democrats tried to block a Bush appointment to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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