His decision was lambasted by Democrats and the mainstream media as rash and a political mistake. He was accused of disobeying his constitutional duty to hold Senate hearings and then a vote on whomever President Obama nominated to fill the vacancy. By refusing, McConnell was told he would hurt Republican prospects in the 2016 election. There would be a public backlash. And so on.

The next week, McConnell took his case to his Senate GOP colleagues at their weekly lunch. By then, he and his staff had boned up on the history of nominees in the final year of a president’s term. “The precedents were on our side,” McConnell says. Even Democrats—Joe Biden, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer—had dismissed lame-duck nominations as unacceptable.

“I’m not a dictator,” McConnell says. “I had to convince my colleagues.” At the lunch, only two Republican senators said they favor hearings. Today, those two are still the only dissenters.