Republican Senators are refusing to support a temporary replacement for Sen Dianne Feinstein, 89, on the Senate Judiciary Committee, as the California senator had been hospitalized for shingles in early March and continues to recover. She has missed 60 of 82 Senate votes this year, and Democrats have been unable to advance any of President Biden’s judicial picks without her vote.
Collectively, the list is getting longer of Senate GOP Senators who are looking past the health crisis of a colleague to stifle Biden’s “radical” nominees.
Texas Senator John Cornyn said, “These are, by definition, the most controversial nominees… I don’t think there’s any appetite on our side to help what we consider to be controversial or unqualified nominees to get confirmed.”
Arkansas Sen Tom Cotton:
North Carolina Sen Thom Tillis:
Utah Sen Mitt Romney:
Maine Sen Susan Collins is concerned for Feinstein’s big picture:
Marsha Blackburn, Deb Fischer, Shelley Moore Capito, Joni Ernst are all in the “hell,no” column.
“Probably not,” WV Sen Capito said. “I think that’s a problem for them and their caucus to figure out the answer to. I don’t think it’s incumbent upon me to figure that out for them.”
Iowa Sen Ernst said: “No, I don’t. We’re not going to help the Democrats with that.”
“It hasn’t happened before,” Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) said of temporarily swapping a committee seat. “I see the predicament that the Democrats are in, but they need to settle that.”
Axios
Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, of Illinois, had urged his GOP colleagues to be kind.
“Tomorrow, this could happen to the Republicans and they could find themselves in a vulnerable position through no fault of their own,” Durbin said Monday. “And I hope that they’ll show a little kindness and caring for their colleagues.”
Durbin didn’t say what Democrats would do next if Republicans block that request. Reorganizing committees is subject to a filibuster, and Democrats have lacked the votes to kill that rule.
