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<h5 class="headline__subtitle"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><i><span style="font-weight:normal;">Photo: AP </span></i></span><br />
President Obama shaking hands with Merrick Garland as he annouced his nomination to the Supreme Court</span></h5>
<h2 class="headline__subtitle"><span style="color:#660000;"><span style="font-size:x-large;"><i> </i> For the GOP 2016 vulnerability may play a part in judicial nomination hearing<i><br />
&#8230;&#8217;It seems being in a tight re-election campaign makes you react more reasonably.&#8217;<br />
Or is it?</i></span></span></h2>
<h2 class="headline__subtitle"><span style="color:#660000;"><span style="font-size:x-large;"><i><span style="color:blue;"><span style="font-size:small;">Continue story after the cut &#8230;.. <a name="more"></a></span></span></i></span></span></h2>
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<p><img class="image__src" src="http://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/crop_0_374_4288_2474,scalefit_630_noupscale/56e9e06a1500002a000b2477.jpeg" alt="" /></p>
<div class="image__credit"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><i>Photo: Gabriella Demczuk/Getty Images </i></span></div>
<div class="image__caption"><b><span style="font-size:small;">Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) says he&#8217;s willing to consider Obama&#8217;s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, on his merits. Shockingly, that&#8217;s controversial in this Senate</span>. </b></div>
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<h3><span style="font-weight:400;"> Most Republicans blocking <a href="http://konnie-moments.blogspot.com/2016/03/obama-picks-appeals-court-veteran-Merrick-Garland-to-fill-Antonin-Scalias-Supreme-Court-seat.html">President Barack Obama&#8217;s Supreme Court nominee</a> cite various principles for the obstruction, but there may be a better predictor for how hardline their stance is: the difficulty of their re-election campaign.</span><br />
Immediately after Obama announced he was selecting federal judge Merrick Garland to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the high court, GOP leaders doubled down on their refusal to vote on or even meet with him or any nominee.<br />
But a little further down the ladder, some GOP senators said they would indeed sit down with Garland &#8212; and break with leadership over it. Many of them are up for re-election in 2016.<br />
For those in tight races, now is definitely not the time to come across as partisan obstructionists. They&#8217;re in the middle of trying to cast themselves as the best senators ever, avoiding reporters whenever possible, dyeing their hair in the dead of night and trying out sharp new talking points with voters back home. GOP leaders may be ready to deny action on any Supreme Court nominee, but for vulnerable senators, to refuse to even meet with a perfectly nice guy named Merrick Garland &#8230; well, that&#8217;s just rude.<br />
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Merrick_Garland.jpg" alt="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Merrick_Garland.jpg" width="456" height="640" /><br />
<b><span style="font-size:small;">Justice Merrick Garland</span></b><br />
Here&#8217;s a look at the Republican senators up for re-election this year and what they&#8217;ve said about meeting with Obama&#8217;s nominee. A wholly unscientific analysis suggests a correlation between a senator&#8217;s willingness to give Garland a chance and said senator&#8217;s panic level about getting re-elected. We&#8217;ll rank them in rough order, from most terrified of blowing their election to least.<br />
<span style="color:#666666;"><span style="font-size:large;"><i> GOP senators on Justice Garland &#8230;who&#8217;s in, who&#8217;s out</i></span></span><br />
<b>Sen. Mark Kirk (Ill.): </b><span style="font-weight:400;">&#8220;I will assess Judge Merrick Garland based on his record and qualifications,&#8221; he said in a statement. That&#8217;s probably a good thing for voters to hear in the state that sent Obama to the White House to make that court pick in the first place. Analysts see Kirk&#8217;s Senate contest as a toss-up, but the only public poll available finds him </span><a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/senate/il/illinois_senate_kirk_vs_duckworth-5432.html"><span style="font-weight:400;">trailing</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;"> Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D).</span><br />
<b>Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.):</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> His office did not respond to a request for comment. But </span><a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/ron-johnson-tammy-baldwin-hew-to-party-lines-on-garland-pick-b99689108z1-372249281.html"><span style="font-weight:400;">a Wisconsin paper reports</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;"> him saying his position continues to be &#8220;let the American people decide,&#8221; suggesting no action until Obama is gone. He hasn&#8217;t exactly been rock-solid in that stance, though. Last month he appeared to waffle, saying he never said he wouldn&#8217;t vote. &#8220;By the time I would actually take the vote, if it comes to that, I&#8217;ll take a vote,&#8221; </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ron-johnson-supreme-court_us_56c38b7ee4b08ffac126d21d"><span style="font-weight:400;">he said</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;">. Johnson </span><a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/senate/wi/wisconsin_senate_johnson_vs_feingold-3740.html#polls"><span style="font-weight:400;">is trailing</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;"> former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold in most polls.</span><br />
<b>Sen. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.):</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> &#8220;I feel I would want to explain my position to the nominee. I mean, he does serve on the circuit court of appeals, so I want to give him that courtesy,&#8221; she told reporters. This is another toss-up, with incumbent Ayotte holding a </span><a href="http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-new-hampshire-ayotte-vs-hassan"><span style="font-weight:400;">single-digit lead</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;"> on Gov. Maggie Hassan (D).</span><br />
<b>Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio): </b><span style="font-weight:400;">&#8220;If the nominee requests a meeting, Rob would be happy to sit down with him and explain his position,&#8221; said his spokesman, Kevin Smith. He emphasized the senator is still opposed to moving a nominee this year, though.<b> </b>Portman is in a </span><a href="http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-ohio-senate-portman-vs-strickland"><span style="font-weight:400;">dead heat </span></a><span style="font-weight:400;">with former Gov. Ted Strickland (D) in a state where </span><a href="http://www.quinnipiac.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/ohio/release-detail?ReleaseID=2326"><span style="font-weight:400;">56 percent of voters</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;"> want the Senate to consider a nominee.</span></h3>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;"><img class="shrinkToFit" src="http://media.pennlive.com/midstate_impact/photo/pat-toomey-2012-editorial-board-4679812b4e8a5785.jpeg" alt="http://media.pennlive.com/midstate_impact/photo/pat-toomey-2012-editorial-board-4679812b4e8a5785.jpeg" width="640" height="545" /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size:small;"><b><span style="font-weight:400;"> </span>Sen. Pat Toomey (Pa.): &#8220;I</b></span><span style="font-weight:400;"><span style="font-size:small;"><b>t&#8217;s nothing personal against Garland &#8212; it&#8217;s personal against Obama.&#8221;</b></span> </span></p>
<p><b>Sen. Pat Toomey (Pa.):</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> Analysts have the state leaning </span><a href="http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/2016-senate/"><span style="font-weight:400;">Toomey&#8217;s way</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;">, but he gave the same answer, verbatim, when asked four times about next steps on Garland&#8217;s nomination. &#8220;We put out a statement this morning and I&#8217;m going to refer you to the statement,&#8221; he told reporters, flying down a flight of stairs. But he did want to make clear in a statement on Twitter that it&#8217;s nothing personal against Garland &#8212; it&#8217;s personal against Obama. &#8220;Should Merrick Garland be nominated again by the next president, I would be happy to carefully consider his nomination,&#8221; Toomey said.</span><br />
<b>Sen. John McCain (Ariz.):</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> &#8220;I&#8217;ve issued a written statement. I&#8217;ve said everything I&#8217;m going to say on it,&#8221; he told reporters. His </span><a href="http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=247D68C9-1D4E-4BE3-B987-E29478BE46A3"><span style="font-weight:400;">statement</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;"> doesn&#8217;t suggest he&#8217;d meet with Garland.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;"><img class="shrinkToFit" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Sen_Chuck_Grassley_official.jpg" alt="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Sen_Chuck_Grassley_official.jpg" width="505" height="640" /></span><span style="font-weight:400;"><b> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-weight:400;"><span style="font-size:small;"><b>Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa):<b><span style="font-weight:400;"><b> Chairman Judiciary Committee. He&#8217;s agreed to meet with</b> <b>Garland.</b></span></b></b></span> </span><br />
<b>Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa):</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> He chairs the judiciary committee and has said he won&#8217;t give Garland a hearing. But he&#8217;s agreed to meet with Garland in early April, after the Senate&#8217;s upcoming two-week recess, per White House spokesman Eric Schultz.</span><br />
<b>Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.):</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> &#8220;Why meet with someone who&#8217;s not going to have a hearing, or have a vote?&#8221; he asked reporters.</span><br />
There are three states where the Republican senators are retiring this year: Indiana, Florida and Louisiana. For those senators and others in reasonably safe contests, their position on the high court nomination becomes … what?<br />
<b>Sen. David Vitter (La.):</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> &#8220;I don&#8217;t do hallway interviews,&#8221; while riding an escalator. What about escalator interviews? &#8220;They&#8217;re the same.&#8221; Vitter </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/senator-david-vitter/no-hearings-on-any-obama-scotus-nominee/10153983715302964"><span style="font-weight:400;">wrote an op-ed last week</span></a><span style="font-weight:400;"> arguing that no Obama nominee should get a hearing.</span><br />
<b>Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.):</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> &#8220;Why would I want to waste my time or his?&#8221; he asked a HuffPost reporter.</span><br />
<b>Sen. Johnny Isakson (Ga.):</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> He didn&#8217;t weigh in specifically on meeting with Garland, but he laughed off a reporter&#8217;s question about potentially moving the nomination in the lame duck. &#8220;Oh God. I&#8217;m not even going to dignify that question or hypothesis with a response.&#8221;</span><br />
<b>Sen. John Hoeven (N.D.): </b><span style="font-weight:400;">&#8220;I&#8217;m reserving judgement at this point,&#8221; he told reporters.</span><br />
<b>Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.)</b><span style="font-weight:400;">: Democrats, at least, put Blunt&#8217;s contest in the sleeper category, but he was standing by the GOP leadership line. </span><span style="font-weight:400;">“This is a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land,&#8221; Blunt said in a statement. &#8220;The president has every right to nominate someone, and the Senate has the Constitutional responsibility to decide if it’s the right person at the right time. I will not vote for this nominee to the Supreme Court.”</span><br />
A spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee did not answer a question about the pattern among vulnerable senators. A spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was willing to entertain the question, but suggested there was no difference between lawmakers being open to meeting Garland and McConnell&#8217;s hardline position.<br />
&#8220;A meeting to tell the nominee you won’t consider his appointment for political reasons is just another craven move from incumbents who refuse to do their jobs,&#8221; said the DSCC&#8217;s Lauren Passalacqua. &#8220;Just as they refuse to stand up to Donald Trump, voters shouldn’t be fooled: anything short of a hearing and vote is obstruction, pure and simple.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:large;"><span style="color:#666666;"><b>Other GOP senators up in 2016:</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight:400;">John Boozman (Arkansas)</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:400;">Mike Crapo (Idaho)</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:400;">James Lankford (Oklahoma)</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:400;">Mike Lee (Utah)</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:400;">Jerry Moran (Kansas)</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:400;">Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:400;">Rand Paul (Kentucky)</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:400;">Tim Scott (South Carolina)</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:400;">John Thune (South Dakota)</span></p>
<p><em>Credit : <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/supreme-court-nominee-republicans_us_56e9d567e4b0860f99db83a2">Huffpo</a></em></p>
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How is 2016 shaping GOP accetpance of Obama’s judicial pick, Merrick Garland …depends on who you ask
