Two former Iowa lieutenant governors call for Supreme Court hearings

DES MOINES - Two former Iowa lieutenant governors - Democrat Sally Pederson and Republican Joy Corning - called Thursday for U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley to hold confirmation hearings on President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, federal appeals Judge Merrick Garland.

Threatening to block his confirmation by refusing to hold hearings is 'troubling and harmful,” Pederson said at a Statehouse news conference organized by Justice Not Politics.

By refusing to hold hearings on Garland, Grassley, who is the GOP chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is abandoning his reputation as 'fair-minded, common sense, consensus-builder,” Corning said.

They rejected Grassley's rational that the Senate should wait until after the presidential election to give voters an opportunity to weigh in on the nomination.

'Courts should be above politics,” Pederson said.

Another former lieutenant governor, Patty Judge, announced earlier that she will seek the Democratic nomination to run against Grassley largely because of his Supreme Court stance.

But Grassley is getting support for his position. A group called One Nation announced it will air TV spots in the Des Moines market urging the senator to 'keep fighting to let the people have a voice in the future of the Supreme Court.”

The ad 'highlights the consequences of allowing President Obama to jam through an election year appointment and radically shift the court to the left,” the group said.

One Nation is led by a former chief of staff for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who spoke by phone Wednesday with Garland but has refused to meet with him.