Leahy: ‘Height of Irresponsibility’ for Senate GOP to Leave Scalia Seat Vacant

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
LEAHY: "Actually, what senator McConnell and all the people that are the huge number of candidates who are in the debate the other night, they were talking from a Republican playbook. I think we ought to talk about this. The constitution of the united States. The constitution of the united States says, the president shall nominate justices to the supreme court and then the Senate to vote, advise, and consent. It would be the height of irresponsibility for the Republican leadership not to have a vote on a nominee from the president. We have had numerous times in our history that there's been a confirmation of a justice in the final year of a presidency. Most recently, when president Reagan, the Democrats were in charge, president Reagan's nominee was voted in the last year of his presidency. And we kept it out of politics. I believe it went through unanimously."
MITCHELL: "Tony was nominated in '87 and confirmed in '88. A longer lead time."
LEAHY: "Yeah, but it's basically the same thing because if the Democrats run the kind of attitude that the Republicans are, he never would have had a vote. And simply voted unanimously. This country has not gone with the yearlong vacancy on the supreme court since the civil war. Yet we've had numerous vacancies filled in the final year of a president's term. Beginning, of course, the first time with president Washington, but Republican, democratic president since. It would be the height of irresponsibility. And it's not as though we don't have time. The Republicans have set more recesses this year than I've ever seen in my years in the Senate. Cancel a couple of those. Bring us back. We get paid the same whether we're there or not. Bring us back, let us do our job, and vote on a nominee. What kind of impression do you think we are giving to the rest of the world when our federal judiciary which is usually held up as the gold standard for the whole world is suddenly thrust into such politics? I can't say I don't think the late Justice Scalia would want to see that. It is wrong. It is not responsible."