President Obama has nominated Merrick Garland, a sixty-three-year-old federal judge, to fill Antonin Scalia’s vacancy on the Supreme Court. Widely regarded as the nominee with the most bipartisan appeal among those Obama could have plausibly chosen, Garland has received plaudits from Republicans and Democrats alike throughout his career.

According to one interpretation popular among liberal commentators, giving Garland the nod is a masterstroke. By nominating someone so unobjectionable to conservatives, the argument goes, Obama has laid bare the hypocrisy of Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans, who refuse to consider any nominee by a lame-duck president.

At the Washington Post, E. J. Dionne hailed Obama for exposing the “extremism” of the Senate Republicans. Law professor Paul Campos pronounced Obama’s choice a “gangster move” that will visit political blowback upon Republicans for their proceduralist chicanery.