Sandra O'Connor, a Reagan appointee, effectively said the exact opposite of what Republican senators wanted to hear.

yobaba:

“…that President Barack Obama should get to name the replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia.’ I have a serious problem with that language. It is patronizing, and sounds like caving in to a child. “He gets to go to the circus.” Barack Obama does NOT “get to” appoint the next Supreme Court justice. He is entitled to and responsible for that appointment, per the Constitution of the United States of America. This is NOT a concession he needs to win. The rightwing narrative around this is absolutely false and anti-Constitutional. The radical Republicans are a vile, petulant, hateful, passel of obstructionists whose only unifying goal is their loathing of a black president who became their target the day he was elected by the American people to lead them.“
~~Sandra Day O'Connor, retired Justice of the US Supreme Court, a Ronald Reagan appointee