Well… Yes and no. It would certainly be an interesting twist in the ongoing Trump nominations saga to see New Jersey Senator Cory Booker calling for a clean up or down vote on the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch. And he has actually said something along those lines, but it didn’t happen recently. As the folks at America Rising Squared point out, Booker was fairly vocal on the subject last year when the entire brouhaha over Barack Obama’s nominee kicked off. At that time he seemed far more reasonable in terms of cross party comity, going so far as to claim that if the shoe were on the other foot he would never act as reprehensibly as Mitch McConnell and the Republicans were.

Booker: “But I’m a big believer if the situations were reversed and there was a Republican President in the last year on the federal level, I would be calling, just like some Republican Senators have, I just listened to Senator Collins from Maine saying we should be giving this person a hearing, an up-or-down vote to not do so is violative of the United States Constitution.” (NJTV News, 3/18/16)

If the senator needs to be put further on the record, we even have the video.

That seems fairly clear-cut, doesn’t it? “If there were a Republican president…” Well, Senator Booker, now there is. So here’s your chance to put your money where your mouth is and make good on your claim. Nobody is asking you to actually vote to confirm the nomination, simply to agree to cloture so that a final vote can be held.

With this hanging over Booker’s head and being made public (assuming you ever see this story crop up on CNN or in the pages of the Washington Post) will he carry through? If he does he would be joining as many as nine other Democratic senators who, as reported at National Review, have already signaled that they will be willing to bring the question to a full vote. Given the sterling resume which Gorsuch brings to the table, there is little doubt that he will receive the required number of votes just from the Republicans to seal the deal after that.

Anyone care to place bets on whether or not Booker’s previous claims will hold true when the time comes? I lived in New Jersey for quite a few years and frankly I wouldn’t bet my bar tab on it. But who knows? Maybe he’ll surprise me.