WASHINGTON — It was a balance-of-power breakfast.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, played host to Judge Merrick B. Garland, President Barack Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, in the Senate dining room on Tuesday. Yogurt parfait was not the point. But what was? Almost all Senate Republicans have made clear they will not consider any court nomination as long as Obama is president.
But while the outcome for Garland may be preordained — at least for this year — the outcome of the political fight over the court vacancy is far from certain. And the stakes, in the presidential election as well as in congressional races, could not be higher.
Grassley, who is up for re-election and who has the power as Judiciary Committee chairman to convene confirmation hearings, has come under pressure in Washington and in Iowa for refusing to do so.
By that calculation, Grassley, for the benefit of voters back home, was perhaps hoping to appear to be doing something — at least showing Garland the courtesy of breakfast at the Capitol — when he was actually doing nothing.
Or, in the inside-out ways of Washington, Grassley might have been trying to make doing something — holding a substantive conversation with the president's nominee — look like doing nothing, to avoid drawing the ire of Republican leaders who have maneuvered forcefully to hold ranks against Garland's confirmation.
Only two Republicans senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, have called for hearings and a vote on Garland's nomination. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has made it clear that further defections will not be tolerated.
For his part, Grassley never seemed entirely comfortable with an all-out blocking effort. Still, he signed a written pledge not to act on the nomination. Either way, the stated purpose of Tuesday's get-together was for Grassley to explain in person why Senate Republicans were not going to allow Obama to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
Or, put another way, it was to deliver a lesson on the balance of powers: the Constitution gives the president the authority to nominate justices, but the power to advise and consent lies with the Senate. Translation for Garland: Your nomination is not happening this year.
And yet, their conversation lasted for nearly an hour — longer than many of the other courtesy meetings that Garland has had with Democrats. Garland had eggs and toast. Grassley opted for oatmeal. Despite the seemingly tough odds, White House officials were still hoping for a breakthrough. That did not seem very likely, based on Grassley's description of the breakfast as "pleasant" in a Twitter message, adding that he explained to Garland why the Senate would not be moving forward with his nomination.
Garland, who has developed a reputation of punctuality at the Capitol, arrived 20 minutes before the 8 a.m. breakfast. Grassley, who is known for waking early and jogging at 4 a.m., was apparently already in the dining room. Neither man spoke to reporters before or afterward.
Garland and his entourage left the dining room shortly before 9 a.m., apparently only to realize that his next meeting, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was also tentatively scheduled in the dining room.
Continuing to make the rounds, Garland was also scheduled to meet later in the day with Sen. Patrick J. Toomey, R-Pa.
Democrats, meanwhile, gleefully distributed news coverage from Iowa of a diner that had agreed to a request by liberal groups and offered up some new specials in honor of the meeting between Grassley and Garland. The restaurant, the Ritual Cafe in Des Moines, was planning to serve Obstruction Oats, oatmeal topped with hemp nuts, and Garland Granola, The Associated Press reported, as well as a Justice Delayed Bowl: steamed eggs roasted with peppers and olives.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who is a member of the Judiciary Committee and had urged Obama to select a consensus, centrist nominee like Garland, had a more leveled response to the breakfast, saying he hoped even more Republicans would follow Grassley's lead and give Garland some face time. "I think advice and consent has to mean a meeting, a hearing and a vote," Coons said. "Otherwise, we're not doing our job."