Hey, I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is Embedded from NPR.

We talked a lot in our episodes on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

about how after Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died,

McConnell did something no one had done in more than 150 years.

He refused to hold hearings for the nominee to fill that seat,

Merrick Garland.

But there's a part of the Merrick Garland story

that we actually hadn't heard until recently.

It starts with a Kansas senator named Jerry Moran.

Jerry Moran, who's, I don't want to describe him as milk toast

because that's sort of a rude word, but a very laid back

team player in the Senate never ever causes a stir.

This is Carl Holsey, covers Congress for the New York Times

and has just written a book about federal judicial nominations.

And he says that for Mitch McConnell to be able to hold the line

on this position that Merrick Garland would not get a vote in the Senate.

He needed his fellow Republicans to stand with him.

But about a month after Scalia's death,

Republican Senator Jerry Moran is back home in his home state,

meeting with voters.

Jerry Moran's in Kansas that says,

you know what, you guys hired me to do a job.

...