March 18, 2016
By Mike DeBonis
Sen. Mark Kirk, of Illinois, (click here) on Friday became the first Republican senator to call for an up-or-down vote on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, saying on a Chicago radio show that his colleagues ought to “just man up and cast a vote.”
Meanwhile, a conservative legal group moved to counter a fierce Democratic push to target embattled incumbents such as Kirk, launching a multimillion television, radio and digital advertising campaign to block Garland’s consideration.
The round of ads from the Judicial Crisis Network is the latest in an onslaught of opposition from conservative interest groups that are throwing money and opposition researchers aimed at halting the nomination process and discrediting Garland, the 63-year-old chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
That Kirk would be first to break with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and other GOP colleagues who think the next president should pick the replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia is not surprising: Kirk was one of two Republican senators, joined by Susan Collins of Maine, to call for confirmation hearings....
