Last year, Democrats insisted that the Constitution required the Senate to hold an up-or-down vote on Supreme Court nominees. This year? They’ll get back to us.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen says, “Unlike the Republican majority, I haven’t heard any Democrats saying we don’t think that Judge Gorsuch should get a hearing or that he should get an up-or-down vote. Everybody I’ve talked to agrees he should get a hearing and an up-or-down vote.”
Her comment seemed to suggest that she will not join a filibuster. But Shaheen subsequently explained that when she said Gorsuch should have an up-or-down vote, all she meant was that there should be a vote on whether to hold a vote on his nomination. . . .
But her position is especially absurd given the Senate Democrats’ options. Shaheen (like Democrats who speak similarly) is trying to get credit for things that she has no power to prevent.