title:  The GOP Will Hate This Humiliating Fact Harry Reid Just Pointed Out About SCOTUS Nominations
text: Politifact just humiliated Senate Republicans big time.During an appearance on Meet The Press on Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid pointed out that Democrats have never held up a Supreme Court nominee the way Republicans are doing now. You have to look at what has happened,  Reid said.  We have never held up a Supreme Court nomination. Since 1900 in a lame-duck session, there have been six that have all been approved. Here s the video via NBC:Republicans are probably crying foul at this point, but Politifact took up the case and investigated Reid s claims, and conservatives are definitely not going to like the results.As it turns out, Politifact rated Reid s claim as  Mostly True.  Despite Republican claims that Democrats started some kind of precedent for their own actions in the present day, the fact-checking organization found that only Republicans have ever not held hearings for a Supreme Court nominee.Politifact pointed out that when President Bush nominated Harriet Miers to a fill a vacancy on the high court both Democrats and Republicans objected, therefore, Democrats are not solely responsible for denying a nominee a full hearing. Miers also at least was allowed to meet with the Senate Judiciary Committee, which under Republican control is flatly denying current nominee Merrick Garland a meeting of any kind.Then Politifact moved on to the 1987 nomination of extreme conservative Robert Bork, which was highly contentious. Democrats did, indeed, launch much public opposition against him, but in the end, even Bork received a full hearing and lost.The nomination of Samuel Alito in 2005 drew filibuster attempts by Democrats, including Reid and then-Senator Obama, but as Reid pointed out to Chuck Todd, Alito is sitting on the Supreme Court bench now because Democrats dropped their filibuster effort and he was confirmed.Despite the latter two contentious nomination battles, Politifact ruled that they  can t find a time when a Democratic Senate refused to hear a Republican president s nominee. Even if they were opposed, they allowed the nominee to come to a confirmation vote. In short, only Republicans have refused to even hold hearings for a Supreme Court nominee and it s not because of some non-existent tradition started by Democrats or some non-existent precedent that goes back 80 years regarding election year nominations. It s because Republicans are throwing a temper tantrum because they don t want the black president to extend his legacy through the Supreme Court. That and they think only a conservative is entitled to replace Scalia.The bottom line, however, is that Senate Republicans need to suck it up and do their jobs because the American people and the Constitution demand it.Featured image: Cagle