is what the republicans did to judge merritt garland, his nomination because salley mentioned rule of law doesn't just mean laws but norms and conventions. is the refusal of the senate republicans to consider or indeed to confirm merritt garland consistent to the rule of law? >> well, i think you wrote a column or two on this? >> yes, i did. >> you want to answer your own question? [laughter] >> no, i'm the moderator. i'm supposed to be moderating. [laughter] >> you know, consistent with the rule of law. i mean, it's certainly not consistent with how we've operated as a country or how we ought to operate. it was troubling to me that president obama being given an opportunity to even get a hearing for his nominee much less to be able to make the appointment. it's not like your last year in office is forfeited. so that -- you know, whether that is a violation of the concept of the rule of law or not, i don't know. but it's not how we ought to be operating. >> merritt garland was the most qualified nominee not just in our lifetime perhaps in the history of the u.s. supreme court. the chi

i mean, it's almost like -- >> could have changed had merritt garland been confirmed to the supreme court. >> yes, but now what is going on now, how it would ever cheng. >> not going to change for a long time. constitutional amendment is next to impossible, and that's the only way it would change. these justices aren't going to change that. >> thank you. >> yes sorry to have to be -- >> hi. >> who should i make it out to. >> geoff with a g like you. >> really? >> and mary. >> i'm the only one who knows who peles it with one f which is ed idio -- idiosyncratic. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> i want to give this to my son-in-law because he is an attorney here in chicago. >> who? >> don gibbons is his name,. >> first and last name? >> john. >> john, john or john gibbons. >> i think john gibbons. >> where does he work? >> gibbons. >> drawing a blank right now. very interesting talk. >> thank you. >> enjoyedded. >> thank you for coming. >> here's a look at the authors recently featured on book tv's "after words." our weekly author interview program: block >> it's the countries that h

the blockade on the nomination of merritt garland. the decision this week to unveil without hearings or any committee action, a health care bill that could take health care from 20 million people, an unprecedented process for a major senate legislation. and this pivotal moment when the intelligence community was looking for a bipartisan kind of statement of support for defending the integrity of the american electoral system. he immediately kind of put it in a partisan lens and said i question the underlying evidence. if the administration had done more, they would be no question i think that donald trump during the campaign would have been attacking them for precisely what rebecca said, arguing they're attempting to put their thumb on the scale. calling it fake news, so it's got to be kind of an ultimate example of crocodile tears now for him to be saying they didn't do enough last year. when you can imagine how he would have reacted if they did. >> it does make people wonder what's going to happen moving forward to make sure 2018 is

before that merritt garland being ignored. you know this very well. felix frankfurter was confirmed nancely, william o. douglas was confirmed unanimously. it used to be intelligence and now it's which club you belong so and we're so driven we partisanship and little -- it's also the fox news and the msnbc and it's the way the primaries are, and we have really driven ourselves -- bill bishop talk about this -- we have become a divided nation. this is not just members of congress who are divided and won't talk to people on the other side of the aisle. it's the nation. and it's much worse -- not porches porlarization is the problem. it's much worse than madison envisioned. >> if partisanship is me problem, first, is it right madison would be surprised? after all the election brought all these parties that were to extreme the outgoing federalist reduced the size of the supreme court to deny in the incoming jeffersonians to make supreme court appointments and i is the cause the big sort people geographically are separating themselves into echo chambers? >>