WASHINGTON (AP) – Sen. Chuck Grassley – farmer, onetime sheet metal shearer, six-term senator and Judiciary Committee chairman – has a major say in whether President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee even gets a hearing.
So far, the 82-year-old Iowa lawmaker has delivered a somewhat muddled message.
Hours after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death one week ago, Grassley issued a statement that echoed his Republican leader, Mitch McConnell. “It only makes sense that we defer to the American people who will elect a new president to select the next Supreme Court justice,” Grassley said.
But three days later, Grassley said on a conference call with reporters that he would “wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decisions” on whether to hold a hearing. “In other words, take it a step at a time,” he said.
He’s repeated the “step at a time” refrain throughout the week on his multiple stops in Iowa, part of his pledge to visit all of the state’s 99 counties each year.