This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

There are advantages that go with being the senior member of the political party that controls the United States Senate. But is it too much to expect that some of those advantages accrue to the country, not just to the individual senator?

Orrin Hatch, seven-term senator from Utah, president pro tem of the World's Greatest Deliberative Body™, member, and former chairman, of the Judiciary Committee, has seen 'em come and seen 'em go. He should have the accumulated wisdom to lead all involved above petty partisanship and toward a statesmanlike approach to filling the vacancy that has just occurred on the Supreme Court of the United States.

But, so far, all Hatch has managed is a little wan Beltway humor.

President Obama, Hatch told NPR, would not be wise to nominate Hatch to the seat held by the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Though if the 82-year-old senator did gain a seat on the court, he pledged to live to the age of 102. Just to annoy the Democrats.

OK. A little humor is welcome in an atmosphere that's otherwise charged with partisan point-scoring.

But then, instead of offering some real leadership, Hatch apparently felt it necessary to start following others, including his junior partner, Sen. Mike Lee, in calling on his colleagues to delay filling the Scalia seat until after the election of a new president.

The argument that presidents don't choose new justices in the final years of their terms is bogus and blind to history.

Lee, of course, was quick to bang the No-bama drum. Mere minutes after Scalia's death was announced, Conn Carroll, aide to Sen. Mike Lee, tweeted: "What is less than zero? The chances of Obama successfully appointing a Supreme Court Justice to replace Scalia."

Maybe. But it shouldn't be for lack of trying.

Of course Obama should nominate a new justice soon. Of course the Senate Judiciary Committee, which includes both Hatch and Lee, and the full Senate should consider that nominee. Of course the Senate has the authority to reject said nomination, for whatever reasons it deems important.

Elections do matter. Including the one in which Obama was chosen to be president, for a term that does not end for almost another year. And the elections that resulted in the make-up of the sitting Senate, charged by the Constitution with the duty to advise and consent, or not, to such nominations.

It is only reasonable for the Democrats to put up a nominee and for the Republicans to judge that candidate. Then the voters, having seen how seriously each party has taken its assigned role, can issue their judgment at the ballot box in November.

Which may be exactly what Republicans want to avoid.