last year president obama nominated merrick gardner.epublicans wouldn't federal budget speak of considering his nomination. the republican objection, their whole problem with him was that barack obama was only going to be president for only a little bit more than a year. he's only got a year left. that's our objection. so they're not going to consider his pick. right now the democratic objection to having hearings on neil gorsuch is that the president is under app fbi counterintelligence investigation for potentially colluding with a foreign power to attack the united states. which of those objections makes more material sense? joining us now is the senior editor and democratic correspondent of "slate," and someone who talks me down when my so box gets too tall. >> it's weird, the illegitimacy of the president throws the entire constitutional -- the haters all said why are you trolling the republicans on the senate judiciary committee? i'm not rolling them. i'm actually just quoting them. i actually have no problem with what you're sayi

that really ups the stakes here in a way th-- >> once the republicans did what they did about merrick gardnerwing president obama make his nomination to that seat. what is the corrective -- is that breaking glass and it all shard or is there a way to reestablish normalcy? >> i have to tell you, i feel different about the court. i'm the wickedest patty hearst, i love my captors, thank you for having no tv in here. so for me something was broken. layerever the seat is not theirs to take away, it the hypoisy of they can't function with eight people, we've got to get this done now. and moreover, this is an institution that really rests on integrity and dignity and civility. you're hearing senate republicans talking about the need to return to norms now. norms? remember them? that was what you broke. >> they said if -- they threatened if hillary clinton was elected, they would hold that seat open until after the 2020 election, that they would not allow anybody other than a republican president to fill that seat. >> i think it really important to be clear that what you're hearing now is republicans