Top Republican Open to Obama SCOTUS Nod

Top Republican Open to Obama SCOTUS Nod

A crack opened Tuesday in Republican opposition to an Obama appointee filling the Supreme Court vacancy left by recently departed Justice Antonin Scalia. "I would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decision," Sen. Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Iowa reporters on Tuesday. While he agrees with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's insistence that the next president should appoint the Scalia replacement, Grassley admitted he prefers to take this "a step at a time." On whether such openness to an Obama nomination could hurt his own re-election chances, the senator said, "I think I have a responsibility to perform and I can't worry about the election. I've got to do my job as a senator, whatever it is."