PA-Sen: White House Plans to Pressure Toomey on SCOTUS Nominee

Toomey SadWithin hours of Justice Scalia’s death GOP Senators, including Pat Toomey, made it clear they wouldn’t support any potential successor nominated by President Obama.

That determination has only grown over time.

With a Presidential selection possibly imminent, the White House is preparing to pressure Republican Senators into considering the President’s Supreme Court nominee.

According to Edward Isaac-Dovere and Josh Gerstein of Politico, Pennsylvania will be a central part of a coordinated campaign being planned by the Administration.

“As soon as President Barack Obama announces a Supreme Court nominee from his short list — which is now set — the White House and its allies will unleash a coordinated media and political blitz aimed at weakening GOP resistance to confirming the president’s pick,” they write.

“Administration allies have already started putting a ground game in place. Obama campaign veterans have been contracted in six states — New Hampshire, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where GOP incumbents are most vulnerable, plus Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley’s Iowa.”

The selection of those states is no accident. Those are all the GOP incumbents that are seeking re-election in a state carried by President Obama in 2012 (there is also an open seat in Florida being vacated by Marco Rubio). Additionally, except for Sen. Grassley, all are freshman elected in the 2010 GOP wave.

Whether the President’s strategy succeeds or not, as long as Republicans are determined to deny a confirmation, Democrats are intent on waging a serious political battle.   

3 Responses

  1. Good move, WH. But either way: thanks GOP for handing us a win, no matter what happens. Unnecessarily, no less!

  2. Block or don’t block the SCOTUS nomination, the GOP loses either way. I like that outcome.

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