[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6463]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   FILLING THE SUPREME COURT VACANCY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Now, on another matter, Mr. President, last week, the 
top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee said that some would like to do 
``some sort of a pretend hearing'' on the President's Supreme Court 
nomination. He went on to dismiss the idea by noting that the Senate 
``is not a pretend office.'' Apparently, he was overruled.
  Later today, Democrats will have what he called a ``pretend 
hearing.'' Senate Democrats initially invited a witness who, at the 
beginning of the Bush administration, wrote this: ``The Senate should 
not act on any Supreme Court vacancies that might occur until after the 
next presidential election.'' He also wrote that this would be a 
``responsible exercise of the Senate's constitutional power.'' 
Apparently, that witness is no longer available--interesting.
  The would-be witness is Abner Mikva, a former Democratic Congressman, 
Federal judge, and White House Counsel. He wrote these words in the 
second year of President George W. Bush's first term. It was not, like 
the situation today, in the eighth year of a term-limited President.
  Democrats certainly have a complicated history when it comes to their 
own words and the Supreme Court. They have the Schumer standard: Don't 
consider a President's nominee 1\1/2\ years before the end of his final 
term. They have the Biden rule: Don't consider a President's nominee 
before he has even finished his first term. Now they have the Mikva 
mandate: Don't consider a President's nominee from, basically, the 
moment he takes office.
  It seems the more we hear from Democrats about the Supreme Court, the 
more we are reminded, by comparison, of how reasonable and commonsense 
the Republican position is today.

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