And one more foot down that slippery slide: "Sen. Ayotte to meet with Supreme Court nominee" - Granite Grok

And one more foot down that slippery slide: “Sen. Ayotte to meet with Supreme Court nominee”

AyotteI know I’ve put this kind of thing up before but I just can’t stop thinking that we are seeing yet another slow motion crash / cave in with the Republicans.  Yes, McConnell and Ayotte have said no deal, but this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this two-bit rodeo show and it always ends the same way.  The Hill reports (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Sen. Kelly Ayotte will meet with Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland next week.  

The New Hampshire Republican plans to meet with Garland on April 13, according to her office, even though she thinks the Supreme Court seat should remain vacant until next year.   “I will meet with the president’s nominee out of courtesy and respect, and I also plan to explain my view that the people should have a voice in this important nomination through their votes in November,” Ayotte said in a statement.  She told reporters in New Hampshire during the Senate’s two-week recess that her office had set up a meeting with Garland, though she wasn’t sure when it would be.

But there’s cracks already showing up in that Republican dike trying to keep those Democrat waters at bay:

Democrats have targeted a handful of vulnerable GOP incumbents, including Ayotte, as they ramp up pressure for action on the court nomination. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who like Ayotte faces a difficult reelection bid, became the first GOP senator to say that he would consider voting for Garland.  Garland is expected to meet with two GOP senators this week, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and John Boozman (R-Ark.).

And Boozman is a new name that has popped up in the “let me slid this foot a little to the left” Republican shimmy and shake Kabuki dance over Obama’s nominee (or is it that old standby “you put your right foot in and then you take it out”?).

A conservative group slammed Boozman on Monday ahead of his meeting. FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon suggested Boozman’s meeting increases the likelihood that Garland will eventually get confirmed. “This is not the time for squeamishness or timidity. Surrendering to this president on the Supreme Court would create more anger and alienate conservative grassroots activists, the very people Republicans count on to win elections,” he added. Approximately 17 Republican lawmakers have suggested they are open to meeting with the president’s pick. Most, like Boozman, are expected to use the sit-downs to reiterate that they think the Supreme Court seat should be filled by the next president.

Brandon is right – in their quest to attract the middle, they’ll lose their base – WHICH electorate do they want (other than “the one that will vote for me the most”)?  Will they put their own seats first or do their Party best (yeah, I know, politicians are selfish about keeping their butts in the seats of choice – WINNING seems to be the only thing lately).  That said, Kelly ought to be remembering what the base did to the top NH GOP candidates this past November.  And I share the concerns of the next part of the piece:

Conservative groups argue that agreeing to take a meeting with Garland plays into the White House’s strategy of pressuring Senate Republicans into giving him a hearing. GOP leaders have shown no signs of changing their strategy. Speaking to a Texas Alliance for Life luncheon Friday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, pledged his party wouldn’t allow an “Obama judge” to get confirmed to the Supreme Court.

And right now, I’d have to agree with those groups as the number of Republicans that “merely wish to meet” seems to grow and grow.  At some point, a group of them are going to start caving to the Democrat demands – that’s just what and who they are.  As a group, they just don’t have the intestinal fortitude to stand tall – they just wither away.

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