President Barack Obama will nominate a GOP-approved moderate to replace Antonin Scalia, the highly-conservative Supreme Court justice who died over the weekend, veteran political analyst Dick Morris tells
Newsmax TV.
"He'll try to make it an impartial appointment — one of the judges … who is [already] confirmed unanimously for the circuit court," Morris said Monday to J.D. Hayworth on "Newsmax Prime."
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Whether that will be enough to satisfy GOP Senate lawmakers, who vow to block any candidate Obama puts forward, is doubtful. They want the next president, who they hope will be a Republican, to make the choice so Scalia’s conservative legacy will continue.
No matter who Obama nominates, conservatives are unlikely to be happy, according to Morris, a Newsmax contributor and former adviser to President Bill Clinton.
"The point the conservatives are going to make is we don't want someone in the middle of the road. [Scalia] was the most right-wing judge. We want a replacement who mirrors his ideology and Obama realizes that," Morris said.
"I think rather than appoint a strong liberal judge who can be opposed ideologically, he'll appoint somebody who would be in the middle of the road which would still have the effect of moving the courts to the left."