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ByDarleneSuperville and Kathleen Hennessee The Associated Press RANCHO MIRAGE President Barack Obama declared Tuesday that Republicans have no constitutional grounds to refuse to vote on a Supreme Court nomi- nee, and he challenged his political foes in the Senate to rise above the "venom and rancor" that has para- lyzed judicial nominations. As Obama cast the dis- pute over filling the seat of the late Justice An- tonin Scalia as a test of whether the Senate could function, there were early signs that Republican re- sistance could be eroding. Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley suggested he might be open to con- sidering Obama's yet-to-be named nominee, an indica- tion his party may be sensi- tive to Democrats' escalat- ing charges of unchecked obstructionism. "I intend to do my job between now and January 20 of 2017," Obama told re- porters at a news confer- ence. He said of the nation's senators, "I expect them to do their job as well." Obama was in California for a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders gathered for two days of diplomacy. But his attention was divided at that conference. Since Scalia's unex- pected death at a Texas ranch on Saturday, White House lawyers and advis- ers have been scrambling to refine and vet a list of po- tential replacements, while also devising a strategy to push a candidate through the Republican-led Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he doesn't think Obama should be putting a can- didate forward. The Ken- tucky senator, as well as several Republicans up for re-election this year, say Obama should leave the choice up to the next pres- ident. The November elec- tion, they argue, will give voters a chance to weigh in on the direction of the court. Obama dismissed that notion, insisting he will put forward a replacement and believes the Senate will have "plenty of time" to give the nominee a fair hearing and a vote. Demo- crats say Obama has every right and a constitutional duty to fill vacancies on the court until he leaves office next January. Obama conceded the dis- pute reflects years of esca- lating partisan hostilities over judicial nominations and said Democrats' hands are not bloodless. Years of bickering have left the pub- lic accustomed to a situa- tion where "everything is blocked" — even when there's no ideological or substantive disagreement, he said. "This would be a good moment for us to rise above it," he said. The pace of judicial con- firmation always slows in a presidential election year, as the party that does not control the White House holds out hope that its candidate will fill vacant judgeships rather than give lifetime tenure to the other party's choices. In the past, lawmakers have sometimes informally agreed to stop holding hearings on lower court nominations during campaign season. Obama argued Tuesday that "the Supreme Court's different." "There's no unwritten law that says that it can only be done in off years. That's not in the constitu- tional text," he said. "I'm amused when I hear people who claim to be strict inter- preters of the Constitution suddenly reading into it a whole series of propositions that aren't there. There's more than enough time for the Senate to consider in a thoughtful way the record of a nominee that I present and to make a decision." McConnell has shown no signs of shifting his op- position, and several law- makers facing heated elec- tions have backed him up. But the Republican party may still be searching for a strategy. In an interview with home state reporters, Iowa Republican Grassley said he "would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decision." The White House has been looking for cracks in the Republicans opposition as it deliberates on a nom- inee. If Republicans indi- cate they may hold hear- ings, Obama would have greater reason to name a "consensus candidate," a moderate nominee who would be at least some- what difficult for Repub- licans to reject. If there's virtually no chance of Re- publicans bending, Obama might go another route — picking a nominee who gal- vanizes support among the Democrats' liberal base and fires up interest groups in the election year. Obama on Tuesday would not tip his hand — much. "I'm going to present somebody who indisput- ably is qualified for the seat and any fair-minded per- son, even somebody who disagrees with my politics, would say would serve with honor and integrity on the court," he said. Asked if that meant he was leaning toward a mod- erate, Obama said, bluntly, "No." He would not comment on whether he would con- sider appointing a candi- date during a congressio- nal recess, a last-ditch ma- neuver likely to further inflame partisanship in Congress. Obama's dilemma arises, in part, because of the un- usual timing. Supreme Court vacancies in pres- idential years are rare, largely because the justices avoid retiring when pros- pects for confirming suc- cessors are uncertain. If Senate Republicans hold fast to their vow not to confirm anyone Obama nominates, the Supreme Court will operate with eight justices not just for the rest of this court term, but for most of the next one as well. High court terms begin in October, and the 80 or so cases argued in the course of a term typi- cally are decided by early summer. The court would be un- able to issue rulings on any issue in which the justices split 4-4. Court officials said Scal- ia's body will lie in repose Friday in the Supreme Court's Great Hall, after a private ceremony. The fu- neral mass Saturday will take place at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Scalia's courtroom chair was draped in black on Tuesday. NOMINATIONS Obama: No excuse for GOP not to vote on a court nominee APPHOTO—SUSANWALSH The flag flies at half-staff outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday following the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia over the weekend. PLEASE RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER. Thank you! By Michael Graczyk The Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS A Texas prisoner was exe- cuted Tuesday for the shot- gun slaying of a Dallas-area liquor store clerk during a robbery more than 25 years ago. Gustavo Garcia, 43, was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m. CST — 16 minutes af- ter the lethal drug began to flow into his arms. He be- came the third convicted killer put to death this year in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state. "God bless you. Stay strong. I'm done," Gar- cia said in his final state- ment, adding that he loved his mother and other fam- ily. None of his relatives at- tended the execution. As the pentobarbital began taking effect, he yawned, gurgled, exhaled and started to snore qui- etly. Within 30 seconds, all movement stopped. Garcia was sentenced to death for fatally shoot- ing 43-year-old Craig Tur- ski during a 1990 holdup in Plano. It was one of two kill- ings during robberies linked to Garcia, who was 18 at the time, and then-15-year-old Christopher Vargas. Garcia's attorneys made no late legal attempts to stop the execution after the U.S. Supreme Court's re- fusal last week to rehear an appeal. A federal judge also wouldn't halt it, and the Texas parole board rejected a clemency petition. Garcia spent more than half of his life on death row for the killing of Turski. Var- gas was tried and convicted as an adult and sentenced to life in prison. His young age made him ineligible for the death penalty. Court documents show Garcia shot Turski in the ab- domen on Dec. 9, 1990, then reloaded and shot the man in the back of the head. A month later, Garcia and Var- gas entered a Plano conve- nience store armed with a sawed-off shotgun and car- ried out a holdup in which another clerk, 18-year-old Gregory Martin, was fatally shot in the head. Martin was on the phone with his girlfriend just be- fore the shooting and told her to call police. Officers arrived and found Vargas standing over Martin's body and Garcia hiding in a beer cooler with the shotgun nearby. Authorities later de- termined the weapon was the same one used in Tur- ski's death. In a statement to police after his arrest for Martin's killing, Garcia said he'd or- dered Turski to his knees and then a customer en- tered the store. "I then panicked," he said. "I shot the clerk with the shotgun." No one from Turski's fam- ily attended Garcia's execu- tion. Martin's sister and brother-in-law witnessed it and declined comment af- terward. "Justice was done today. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims," Collin County Dis- trict Attorney Greg Willis said. On Thanksgivingnightin 1998, Garcia and five other death row inmates were scaling a pair of 10-foot- high prison fences when corrections officers opened fire on them and they sur- rendered. A seventh death row prisoner, Martin Gu- rule, was shot but managed to flee, making him the first inmate to escape Texas death row since a Bonnie and Clyde gang member broke out in 1934. Gurule's body was found about a week later in a creek a few miles from the prison. An autopsy showed he drowned. "At least I can say I tried," Garcia said of the escape at- tempt in a 1999 interview with The Associated Press. "Facing execution is scar- ier." Garcia's death sentence was overturned in 2000 on appeal. A year later, he was returned to death row after a second punishment trial. At least nine other Texas inmates have executions scheduled in the coming months, including three in March. 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