Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell meets with Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch on Jan. 1 at the U.S. Capitol. | Getty GOP, Dems at war over Gorsuch meetings

Republicans spent much of the last year ignoring Merrick Garland. But just two days into the latest court fight, and conservatives are already irritated with Democrats who haven’t yet agreed to a private sit-down with Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court.

Allies of Gorsuch began hammering Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and fellow Senate Democrats on Thursday for what they called a refusal to meet with Gorsuch, the respected jurist who sits on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado.


Gorsuch has shuffled through the Senate in the last 48 hours for several meet-and-greets with Republicans and at least one Democrat. The meetings are little more than courtesy visits and photo ops, but conservatives are latching onto every chance to pressure Democrats on the nomination.

"By refusing to meet with Judge Gorsuch, Senate Democratic leadership is taking Washington gridlock and obstruction to a new low and placing Sens. [Claire] McCaskill, [Joe] Donnelly, [Heidi] Heitkamp, [Jon] Tester, and other Democrats up for reelection in 2018 on the endangered politicians list,” said Carrie Severino, chief counsel for the Judicial Crisis Network, an advocacy group that’s already launched a $10 million campaign targeting red-state Democrats to persuade them onto Gorsuch’s side.

A spokesman for Schumer said the New York Democrat asked the White House for more time to review Gorsuch’s record — which includes more than a decade in the federal judiciary and reams of writings — before a meeting between the two men was scheduled.

“After how the Senate Republicans treated Judge Garland, the irony of Republicans criticizing Democrats for not meeting with a Supreme Court nominee two days after he has been nominated is jaw-dropping,” Schumer spokesman Matt House said.

This latest kerfuffle shows how every incremental development in the contentious Gorsuch fight will be amplified, as Republicans and the broader conservative world launch an all-out offensive to get Gorsuch confirmed. If all their ranks hold, the GOP needs to pick off eight Democrats to ensure Gorsuch gets installed at the Supreme Court without resorting to the so-called “nuclear option” to change the Senate’s filibuster rules.

The meet-and-greets even launched a mini-Twitter war between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and the state’s Democratic senator, Tammy Baldwin — whom Walker accused of turning down a meeting with Gorsuch, which a Baldwin aide disputed. (“The tweet is a lie,” the aide said.)

“Sen. Baldwin is out of the mainstream,” Walker tweeted. “Refuses to meet with judge whose experience is nearly identical to Judge Garland." His tweet came after the governor sent out an e-mail to supporters, praising Gorsuch and taunting Baldwin over her “kneejerk attacks” on the Supreme Court nominee.

Baldwin punched back at the former presidential hopeful: “Your opportunity to weigh in on Gorsuch ended with your short-lived [presidential] campaign. Focus on fixing [Wisconsin’s] roads and bridges. #priorities.”

The Tea Party Patriots also got in the game, with its president Jenny Beth Martin saying: “Our network of grassroots activists will let Senate Democrats know that this kind of obstruction is unacceptable.”

White House officials did not answer questions about its request for Gorsuch to meet with Schumer. But more Democrats will begin their courtesy visits with the nominee next week; he is scheduled to meet with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, on Monday afternoon.

Democrats have been particularly careful to note that they would not obstruct Gorsuch in the same way Republicans treated Garland, whom the GOP refused to take up in Barack Obama’s final year in office.

“Even though I thought that was an unjustified and offensive break with precedent, I would not respond in kind,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Judiciary Committee. “I think that we should give Judge Gorsuch a hearing and a vote on committee. I think he is owed what Judge Garland never got.”

View Democrats and Republicans react to Trump's Supreme Court pick Democrats and Republicans react to President Donald Trump's pick for the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

In an interview, Severino said there was no inconsistency in slamming Democrats for declining to meet with Gorsuch when Republicans mostly ignored Garland.

“That was a different situation,” she said, noting that Republicans didn’t want to go through the “rigamarole of the political theater of that process that everyone knew was not going to continue.”

Gorsuch sped through a host of meetings soon after he was nominated: Just on Thursday, the judge met with a diverse array of GOP senators including Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Ted Cruz of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

With Capito, Gorsuch chit-chatted about skiing. And shortly before sitting down with Corker, the Tennessee senator noted that he invited Peyton Manning to a dinner at the GOP retreat in Philadelphia last week, when his Republican colleagues flocked to the former NFL quarterback, who led the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl championship last year, and “I was kind of left standing by myself.”

“Peyton Manning’s a little different than all of us,” Gorsuch remarked of his fellow Coloradan. “A real hero.”