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 A fierce political fight is brewing as the Democratic president
prepares to name a successor to conservative Justice Antonin Scalia,
who died on Saturday. Obama's nominee could change the court's
balance of power. Scalia's death left it with four conservative and
four liberal justices.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid told MSNBC in an interview that
he spoke with Obama on Thursday about the nomination and expected
the president to name his choice in "a little over three weeks."
Many Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,
have said the seat should remain vacant until Obama's successor
takes office next January so voters can have a say in the selection
when they choose a new president in the Nov. 8 election.
"The Senate gets to have a say," Biden, a former senator, told
Minnesota Public Radio in an interview broadcast on Thursday. "In
order to get this done, the president is not going to be able to go
out, nor would it be his instinct anyway, to pick the most liberal
jurist in the nation and put them on the court."
 The Senate, whose Republican majority would be unlikely to embrace
any selection seen as particularly liberal, must confirm nominees
picked for lifetime appointments to the nation's highest court.
"There are plenty of judges who are on high courts already who have
had unanimous support of the Republicans. This should be someone
who, in fact, is a consensus and whereby we can generate enough
support to get a person passed," Biden said.
In a separate interview broadcast on MSNBC, Biden said he would be
deeply involved in advising Obama but that he had no desire himself
to be named to the high court. Biden told MSNBC the president had
sought his advice but they had yet to discuss potential candidates.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Obama would draw
on Biden's perspective, noting the vice president had served as
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman and presided over confirmation
hearings for past Supreme Court nominees. Those included the
contentious 1991 hearings for Justice Clarence Thomas.
'GET ON WITH IT'
Separately, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the
first woman to serve on the court and a nominee of Republican
President Ronald Reagan, took issue with Republicans who are
demanding that Obama's successor pick the person to fill Scalia's
vacancy.
"I don't agree," O'Connor, 85, told an Arizona television station.
"We need somebody in there to do the job - and just get on with it."
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Some Republican senators have urged their leaders at least to allow
the customary Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings to proceed
on any Obama nominee.
"I do believe that the nominee should get a hearing," Senator Lisa
Murkowski told reporters in her home state of Alaska on Wednesday.
She added: "That doesn't necessarily mean that ends up in a vote" by
the Senate to confirm the nominee.
Senators Dean Heller of Nevada and Thom Tillis of North Carolina
this week also indicated support for allowing the Senate to consider
Obama's nominee.
Obama will not attend Scalia's funeral on Saturday, a decision that
provoked criticism from some conservatives. Earnest rebuked critics
who he said "want to use the funeral of the Supreme Court justice as
some sort of political cudgel."
Earnest noted Obama would pay his respects by going to the Supreme
Court building on Friday when Scalia's body will be lying in repose,
and Biden would represent the Obama administration at the funeral.
Obama's presence at public events requires a massive retinue of
Secret Service agents and security measures, while Biden's "security
footprint" is a little bit lighter, Earnest said, noting the White
House had sought a "respectful arrangement."
A CBS News poll and a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed
Americans closely split along partisan lines on whether Obama should
name Scalia's successor.
(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton, Lawrence Hurley, Richard
Cowan and John Whitesides; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by
Bernadette Baum, Howard Goller and Peter Cooney)
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