Blocked again

Cotton stokes future run by obstructing Garland

Wonder what’s holding up the confirmation of Merrick Garland as U.S. attorney general?

Ask Arkansas’ junior U.S. senator, Tom Cotton.

The Republican from Little Rock is blocking, or more precisely, delaying the nomination.

It is a play for time to try to weaken the nominee and a bid by Cotton to win points with voters for a widely anticipated future presidential bid.

Garland, of course, is a respected judge of the federal District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals and President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Justice Department.

The judge is best known perhaps as the U.S. Supreme Court nominee who never even got a hearing before the Senate after President Barrack Obama named him to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

That was in 2016, when Republicans held the majority in the Senate and would have refused to consider any Obama appointee for the nation’s high court.

The line drawn by Mitch McConnell, then the Senate majority leader, was that the March appointment came too near the November election to be filling a lifetime Supreme Court vacancy.

Never mind that, with an election even closer at hand last year, McConnell led the Senate to approve the September nomination by then-President Donald Trump of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to succeed the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Much has changed since last year’s election, including McConnell’s title. He’s now the minority leader in an evenly divided Senate, where a Democratic vice president holds the deciding vote, should any issue come down to a tie.

Thankfully, Garland’s confirmation vote isn’t expected to be that close. Early predictions were that the nomination would sail through the Senate.

President Biden announced Garland as his choice for attorney general on Jan. 7. His smooth sail has arguably hit choppy waters, at least temporarily.

Notably, key Republicans on the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee joined Democrats to send Garland’s nomination to the full Senate.

Sen. Cotton was not among them. He was instead one of the seven Republicans on the losing side of that 15-7 vote in the Judiciary Committee, where Cotton newly serves.

At a February committee meeting, Cotton questioned Garland pointedly about whether he would follow Biden White House policy regarding capital punishment.

If the president asks or if the Justice Department develops a policy about a moratorium, Garland said it would “apply across the board.” He noted that the death penalty has been ruled constitutional but is not required. “That is within the discretion of the president.”

Cotton clearly didn’t like that answer or some others from the nominee.

The senator has since put a hold on the nomination, assuring delay but not necessarily impacting Garland’s eventual confirmation.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, citing Garland’s extensive legal experience and his commitment to keep politics out of the Justice Department, assessed the situation this way: “Unless I hear something new, I expect to support his nomination before the full Senate.”

Cotton is clearly hoping Cornyn and other senators inclined to confirm Garland will hear something that is damaging to the judge. It is, however, unlikely anything will knock Garland off his path back to the Justice Department.

Besides his long service on the federal bench, Garland once held senior posts there, including as a supervisor in the prosecution of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Biden’s choice of Garland reflects the president’s goal to restore the Justice Department’s reputation as an independent body, answering to the law and not to politics.

Remember, this is the same Justice Department that a series of Trump appointees, most notably former Attorney General William Barr, left demoralized, its reputation battered and in serious need of the kind of able, strong leadership Garland offers.

Nevertheless, Cotton is making this last-ditch stand, citing specific concerns over Garland’s answers to written questions.

The answers Cotton called “evasive” were about issues like illegal immigration, capital punishment, gun control and other matters likely to rile Trump supporters who make up that future voting bloc Cotton is courting.

Garland’s answers were guarded, as are answers from any jurist in such a setting. Cotton knows that, but the people he’s trying to reach beyond the Capitol may not.

And he needs to reach them to preserve his presidential aspirations.

One recent poll had him at 1%, trailing eight other Republican wannabe candidates for 2024, if, of course, front-runner Trump (at 53 percent) ever moves aside.