NEIL CAVUTO (HOST): Is it your sense that for Ted Cruz, looking at this and trying to pay attention -- he was the one that said we shouldn't even be holding confirmation hearings. In other words, he backed Mitch McConnell early on saying holding hearings would be ludicrous until a new president comes in. Other Republicans have gotten nervous as you know about that, say what you will, but President Obama he still does have about a year to go. It would look kind of foolish if they even blocked the hearings. Where is this going for him and what are we to make of how Republicans are kind of going back and forth on this?

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY: Yeah I don't even think Republicans have an option here. If they were to seriously consider any candidate for placement on the high court I think voters would revolt. They want nothing to do -- Republican voters want nothing to do with having someone replace Scalia who would not match his very strong and robust leadership in conservative legal jurisprudence. So it would just be laughable to even take it seriously. And the voters would punish Republicans so much. It's just -- there's really no option --

CAVUTO: Punish Republicans for not holding the confirmation hearings or punish them --

HEMINGWAY: Absolutely.

CAVUTO: Really?

HEMINGWAY: Absolutely. They just -- they take this very seriously. Conservatives care a great deal about the court. It was already hanging in the balance. There are so many important decisions coming down the pike which are already going to be lost until such time as a conservative can replace Scalia.

CAVUTO: So why not hold the hearings and if that's your case reject whoever the president nominates, because you're saying at face value we don't like his picks. It's been done before. So why not do that rather than look like you're taking your marbles and running away.

HEMINGWAY: It actually hasn't really been done before. There hasn't been a vacancy that began so late in a presidential term. And more than that this is just a highly politicized era. I don't think anyone really likes that that's the case, but everyone knows that if President Obama has his way he will not put someone fitting for the court's balance in there.

CAVUTO: Well that might be the case but you are holding that precedent to -- let's say it's a Republican successor and he or she is in their last year in office and we're saying, 'no no no, you can't do it.'

HEMINGWAY: It's certainly a rare occasion for the most part but also it's just true that this is just how things ever since Democrats did what they did to Robert Bork, this has become a very political situation and that's just the fact of the matter. And so there is really again just no option for Republicans. Voters would just be done with the Republican party entirely if they were to cave on something as important as this.

CAVUTO: Really? I will respectfully disagree with you on that one. I think the voters in the general election might revolt more against a party that just did something like that.

Previously:

Fox vs Fox: GOP Supreme Court Obstruction Edition

Fox Analyst Rips Republicans Pledging To Block Obama's SCOTUS Nomination Before It's Made

Fox's Neil Cavuto Criticizes GOP For Promising To Obstruct Any SCOTUS Nominee From President Obama