[burger]

There are several reasons why it might be to the Republicans' advantage to confirm a moderate Obama nominee:

- Obama can make a recess appointment, and this could be a very liberal justice.  One name being floated for a recess appointment is Stanford Law professor Pamela Karlan.  If Obama puts a very liberal justice on the bench, R's have a motivation to permanently appoint someone more moderate.  And (someone correct me here if I'm wrong), but I think that if Obama repeated the recess appointment between the 2 congressional sessions, that appointment would last until the end of 2018 or the appointment of a permanent successor.

- As someone mentioned above, rejecting all nominees makes the Republicans look incapable of governing.

- If the Democrats take the senate but lose the White House, then they can easily eliminate the filibuster and approve a very liberal Obama appointee between the seating of the new Congress in early January and the inauguration later in the month.

The only scenario in which the Republicans have an advantage in rejecting all Obama nominees is winning the presidency and holding the senate.  It's too early to put good odds on either of those outcomes yet, so how this plays out depends on how much risk the R's want to take with the upcoming election.

[burger]

There are several reasons why it might be to the Republicans' advantage to confirm a moderate Obama nominee:

- Obama can make a recess appointment, and this could be a very liberal justice.  One name being floated for a recess appointment is Stanford Law professor Pamela Karlan.  If Obama puts a very liberal justice on the bench, R's have a motivation to permanently appoint someone more moderate.  And (someone correct me here if I'm wrong), but I think that if Obama repeated the recess appointment between the 2 congressional sessions, that appointment would last until the end of 2018 or the appointment of a permanent successor.

- As someone mentioned above, rejecting all nominees makes the Republicans look incapable of governing.

- If the Democrats take the senate but lose the White House, then they can easily eliminate the filibuster and approve a very liberal Obama appointee between the seating of the new Congress in early January and the inauguration later in the month.

The only scenario in which the Republicans have an advantage in rejecting all Obama nominees is winning the presidency and holding the senate.  It's too early to put good odds on either of those outcomes yet, so how this plays out depends on how much risk the R's want to take with the upcoming election.