Reid excoriates Grassley over Supreme Court stance

In a lengthy take down Wednesday morning of Chuck Grassley for his refusal to consider any Supreme Court nominee from President Barack Obama, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid blasted the Iowa senator's 'ineptness” in leading the committee that vets federal judicial appointments.

'Sen. Grassley has surrendered every pretense of independence and let the Republican leader annex the Judiciary Committee into a narrow, partisan mission of obstruction and gridlock,” Reid said in a floor speech. 'So partisan, in fact, that the senior senator from Iowa won't respond to a personal invitation from the president inviting him to the White House to discuss the Supreme Court vacancy. Think about that: The president of the United States calls a very senior senator here and that senator doesn't even bother to respond to the president. This is a sad day for one of the proudest committees in the United States Senate.”

On Tuesday, Grassley and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate would not hold confirmation hearings on anyone the Democratic president picks to replace conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died Feb. 13. Obama, who has about 11 months left in office, said he plans to nominate a replacement but has not done so yet.

In a letter released Tuesday, Grassley and the 10 other GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee he leads wrote that the body would postpone action 'to ensure the American people are not deprived of the opportunity to engage in a full and robust debate over the type of jurist they wish to decide some of the most critical issues of our time.”

A furious Reid, D-Nevada, excoriated Grassley in the floor remarks, asserting he had abdicated control of the committee to McConnell.

'The Senate historian's office reported yesterday that the denial of committee hearings for a Supreme Court nominee is unprecedented. Sen. Grassley will be the first Judiciary chairman ever to refuse to hold a hearing on a Supreme Court nominee. That's quite an achievement, but not one for which he should be proud,” Reid said.

Reid said in his remarks that the number of 'judicial emergencies” - vacancies causing a backlog in federal cases - have gone from 12 under Democratic control to 31 under Republican control.

'By nearly every metric, the Judiciary Committee under Chairman Grassley is failing. The committee is failing the people of Iowa and the nation,” Reid said. 'I say to my friend, don't continue down this path. Reject this record-setting obstruction and just do your job as a powerful chairman of the Judiciary Committee.”