U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (left), a Republican, faces an election challenge from former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (right). Credit: AP

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Democrats pounced on U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson's comments Thursday that indicated if a Republican were in the White House, the Senate might consider filling a Supreme Court vacancy.

Johnson has joined other GOP senators in announcing that they won't take up President Barack Obama's nominee to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

During a radio interview Thursday with Johnson, a Janesville radio host said he assumed that if Republican Mitt Romney was now in the White House, Republicans in the Senate would be trying to confirm a Supreme Court justice before the election.

"It's a different situation," Johnson responded. "Generally, and this is the way it works out politically, if you're replacing — if a conservative president's replacing a conservative justice, there's a little more accommodation to it."

"But when you're talking about a conservative justice now being replaced by a liberal president who would literally flip the court — you know, let's face it, I don't think anybody's under any illusion — President Obama's nominee would flip the court from a 5-4 conservative to a 5-4 liberal controlled court," Johnson said. "And that's the concern is that our Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms, our First Amendment rights to free speech and religious liberty, will be threatened."

After the comments surfaced, Democrats stepped up an attack on Johnson, who is in a tough re-election fight with Russ Feingold.

"Senate Republicans admitted today what everyone already knows: the egregious disregard for their constitutional responsibility is unprecedented and none of this would be happening if a Republican occupied the White House," said Mark Paustenbach, press secretary for the Democratic National Committee.

Brian Reisinger, a Johnson spokesman, said the senator hasn't changed his position. He also criticized Feingold, who as a U.S. senator tried to filibuster one of President George W. Bush's Supreme Court picks, Justice Samuel Alito.

"Ron has been clear from the beginning that we should let the American people decide. Ron did not say what the Senate would or would not do under a hypothetical situation — unlike Senator Feingold, who has changed his tune for political expedience after filibustering a vote on Justice Alito," Reisinger said.