Two More GOP Senators To Meet With SCOTUS Nominee Garland Next Week

Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., leaves the Senate floor after lawmakers cleared a hurdle on a stopgap spending bill an hour after freshman Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, ended his 21-hour, 19-minute filibuster, at the Capitol in... Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., leaves the Senate floor after lawmakers cleared a hurdle on a stopgap spending bill an hour after freshman Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, ended his 21-hour, 19-minute filibuster, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013. Boozman, a soft-spoken and even-tempered Republican, earlier this week blasted Sen. Cruz in a closed-door meeting for the tea party firebrand's hardball tactics. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS

April 1, 2016 1:51 p.m.

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Two Republican senators are scheduled to meet with Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland next week in a hopeful sign for the Obama administration.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) both announced that they will hold meetings with Garland next Tuesday, according to the New York Times.

Collins has openly criticized GOP Senate leadership for refusing to hold court with Obama’s nominee, claiming that the president should be able to name a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

“The President, whether Republicans like him or not, is our President until next January, until Inauguration Day and it just seemed to me that there was no basis for saying that no matter who the President nominates, we were not going to consider that individual,” Collins said Tuesday on Maine’s Newsradio WGAN.

Boozman has been less vocal on the topic, though he issued a statement on the day Garland was nominated that affirmed his solidarity with senators who did not want to vote on Garland’s nomination.

“Our country is very split and we are in the midst of a highly contested presidential election,” the Arkansas senator said in the statement. “My colleagues and I are committed to giving the American people a voice in the direction the court will take for generations to come.”

Like Sen. Mark Kirk (I-IL), who was the first Republican senator to meet with Garland this week, Boozman is up for re-election this year.

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Allegra Kirkland (@allegrakirkland) Allegra Kirkland is a New York-based reporter for Talking Points Memo. She previously worked on The Nation’s web team and as the associate managing editor for AlterNet. Follow her on Twitter @allegrakirkland.

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dr_coyote says:

April 1, 2016

Say goodbye to your Senate and SCOTUS majorities, Mitch.
littlegirlblue says:

April 1, 2016

Judge Garland is schedule to meet with some rational Senators as well,

White House officials say the nominee will also meet with Senators Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he is scheduled to sit down with Senators Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Dianne Feinstein of California and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. And on Thursday, his schedule includes Senators Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Chris Coons of Delaware.
sniffit says:

April 1, 2016

I still say fuck 'em. They’re only doing this because they think they have to for re-election and because they know it will make absolutely no difference. It’s all for show. Fuck 'em.
arc_of_the_universe says:

April 1, 2016

That #@!% does it!!! If Boozman’s willing to meet with Obummer’s criminal-coddling communist, he must be socialist homosexual Muslim, too. We need people willing to standup to the United Nation/Trilateral Commission gay Islamic secularist agenda!!! TEA PARTY: RECRUIT HUCKABEE TO PRIMARY THIS LIBTARD!!!
blue_grit says:

April 1, 2016

arc_of_the_universe:

he must be socialist homosexual Muslim

You forgot “Atheist”.