It took all morning and part of the afternoon, but the U.S. Senate has officially changed the rules so that nominations (not including to the Supreme Court) can get cloture with the support of 50 senators (with the vice-president breaking a tie) rather than the 60 senators that have been required previously. The final vote was 52-48, with Sens. Carl Levin (D-MI), Mark Pryor (D-AR), and Joe Manchin (D-WV) joining with a unanimous Republican opposition to the change.
This was an unfortunate but necessary move by Harry Reid. If the filibuster has any legitimate purpose, it is for lifetime appointments. I think it is safe to say that women’s reproductive rights are less safe as a result of this change in the rules, but ultimately it probably won’t make much of a difference. The Democrats can now nominate and confirm more liberal judges, and the Republicans almost definitely would have changed the rules if they found one of their nominees blocked in the future.
Our job just got a little more urgent. We cannot lose control of the Senate and we must win the next two presidential elections, at a minimum, or we will see women’s rights rolled back.
Yet, I still applaud the Democrats for standing up for themselves and for the power of the Executive Branch to get votes on their nominees. Good for them. It was a long time coming.
Comity is dead. Long live comity.
I NEVER thought I would see this day, and thank god it has come. I am SURE, 100% sure, that we will have cause to regret this, since there are more than one Bork out there, and he/she will be nominated and confirmed. But if ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES, the MAIN one is that a president can, should, and will get the bulk of his/her nominees to the appellate and district courts approved by a majority and constitutional vote.
This will also end the unconstitutional practice of not confirming heads of agencies which Repukeliscum do not agree with. Of course, had this rule been in place in 2009, we would have E Warren as head of the consumer board. Now, instead, we have one of the most important senators in E Warren, and one day we might be calling her “Madame POTUS”. All due to Repukeliscum obstruction and Democratic support.
BOOM. Now the question is, does the administration have lots of nominees lined up on both the judicial and executive sides. It’s time for the Senate to start working overtime (y’know, bankers hours) in order to get these judges and civil servants working.
Unprecedented, almost inconceivable, abuse of senate minority “rights” by the “conservative” Repub party destroyed the Old Tyme Senate so beloved of these egotists. Mitch either had to know this was the inevitable result of his gang’s dishonest tactics, or he never thought 50 Dem votes were possible.
But yes, if a “conservative” prez is ever paired with a Repub senate, then lots of people’s rights are doomed. The right to choose has already been obliterated by “conservative” judges in vast swathes of the country.
That’s what it means to be in a titanic existential struggle with a massive American Nazi Party funded by the nation’s plutocrats and oligarchs. The stakes just keep getting bigger and bigger. The “conservative” movement is either destroyed as a operational force, or it destroys the nation. That’s the situation, and there’s no way out of it.
Diversity killed the senate. Civil service jobs and judgeships used to be granted near exclusively to the white and male. And thus, liberals and conservatives could make peace and keep everything in the club.
Nowadays all Republicans want to do is appoint Federalist Society members and white supremacist strict-constructionists. And Democrats want to instead promote agendas of representative diversity, homosexuality, reproductive choice, trade unions, corporate restraint and reform, and civil rights. There is zero chance for compromise once the uniting factors of white and male were made anachronistic.
If every Obama appointee was a straight, male WASP (as Iplenty of them are), the republicans would have done exactly the same thing.
It’s policy even more than diversity.
An impossible counterfactual, divorced from real Democratic behavior. That’s my point. Diversity is the policy. The policy is diversity.
You folks spend 364 days pointing out the monochromatic homogeneity of the Republican base, the Republican electorate and the ranks of Republican officeholders and then blanch at the factional implications. Democrats promote and appoint people Republicans refuse to recognize or empathize with, who hold views Republicans find heretical and abhorrent.
The United States of Calvinball.
Why protect the Supreme Court? Why preserve cloture votes for legislation? Why now, why not three years ago? Why not eight years ago?
Congratulations. I was waiting for the first “too little, too late” comment. Now I can start drinking.
Me too.
Snark: I’m also looking forward to all the people who just yesterday were saying this would never happen acknowledging they were wrong. /snark
There is a shortage of people who are willing to acknowledge that they were wrong and I was right. It was true on Clinton vs. Obama, true on the debt ceiling, and true on filibusters.
But life is too short to expect credit.
What’s your position on Immigration Reform? You do seem to have a knack for correct predictions.
KC thanks Philly for giving us Andy Reid.
I said it would never happen because I didn’t want to get my hopes up which had been disappointed many times before. I’ve said over and over and over that this move helps more than it hurts and I stand by that. It was a long process, requiring ossified minds to accept a new reality, replacement by more relevant people, and an opposition who is constitutionally incapable of bending. There’s no guarantee it would have happened this time as opposed to next time. Each showdown brought us closer.
I am glad they proved me wrong. I am glad you were right Martin. I am glad you were right on the debt ceiling. I have no opinion on Clinton v. Obama, especially since Clinton might follow Obama.
I will continue to expect the worst and continue to hope I am proven wrong. I want my surprised to be pleasant ones and above all I want progress.
Not too little, too late. This is another radicalizing episode that Republicans should have had foresight to delay.
Congresspeople don’t have security details. One in Arizona had her brain blown out by a schizophrenic goldbug, but we are not far from an episode where anti-abortion tactics are adopted and a senator or congressman (or even president) is calmly and rationally executed for being an “enemy of the state.”
The modern Democratic agenda stands defiantly in contradiction to the nation’s white supremacist origins and violence has always haunted this ideological conflict.
Don’t forget that another was mugged yesterday.
Once again, the Republicans just could not help themselves. They are incapable of taking YES for an answer. They have had a virtually free hand with their obstruction and have gotten 95% of what they want. And most of the time the Democrats seemed to be content with a win here and there. All the Republicans had to do was continue to occasionally throw a bone and they could have maintained the upper hand indefinitely. Instead, they did one of those completely brainless, “Hey everybody, watch this!!!!”, moments.
Seems unfathomably stupid to me on their part.
Harry Reid also wins the internets for this tweet and the accompanying Vine video:
This too. It looks like he’s pretty well prepared to explain himself. The filibuster was meant to prevent the tyranny of the majority, not to enable the tyranny of the minority.
No, Booman. Casey “rolled back” women’s rights. They will throw any hint of “rights” in the trash heap and set it on fire then piss on the ashes.
And it’s not just women’s rights. Scalia and Thomas ain’t got shit on Janice Brown.
No more “Mr. Nice Guy”, Republican scum.
IT’S ABOUT DAMN TIME!
We’d better see aggressive movement. I expect nominee after nominee as far left as 50 senators and Joe Biden can tolerate. Starting this afternoon.
I can honestly say this event has made me open to returning to the legal field.
Fed chief Yellen and 3 nominees for the DC circuit are up to bat.
Wow! This is fantastic. The senate just got a teeny bit more democratic! I didn’t think I would live to see this.