It was the Republican talking point of the Sunday talk shows: If Democrats delay Neil Gorsuch's confirmation to the Supreme Court this week, Republicans said, it would be an affront to history — the first time a nominee to the high court had been filibustered.

True? Only in a narrow sense. Partisanship has denied a Supreme Court seat to a number of nominees, most recently former President Barack Obama's choice for the court last year.

Republicans are advancing their argument about historical precedent to try to soften the ground for a possible change in Senate rules to place Gorsuch on the court. If Republicans now in control of the Senate can't get enough Democrats behind them — it takes 60 votes to end a filibuster — they may shift procedures to require only a simple majority of 51 votes. When then-majority Democrats made that switch for lower-level nominees, Republicans cried foul.

Some comments from the Sunday news programs and the larger historical perspective: