Greg Sargent, at the Washington Post:
With Senate Republicans blocking a third Obama nomination to the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, a senior Senate Democratic leadership aide tells me Reid is now all but certain to move to change the Senate rules by simple majority — doing away with the filibuster on executive and judicial nominations, with the exception of the Supreme Court – as early as this week…
“Reid has become personally invested in the idea that Dems have no choice other than to change the rules if the Senate is going to remain a viable and functioning institution,” the aide says. That’s a long journey from where Reid was only 10 months ago, when he agreed to a toothless filibuster reform deal out of a real reluctance to change the rules by simple majority. Asked to explain the evolution, the aide said: “It’s been a long process. But this is the only thing we can do to keep the Senate performing its basic duties.”…
Take it away, Mr. Pierce:
… It’s time, Harry. Really, it is. I was on the other side of this issue for a very long time because I didn’t want to confront the possibility of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell with the unlimited power to do anything that President Scott Walker wanted. That kind of thing still gives me pause. But this business with the judges has long passed over the International Fk You Line. One of the reasons we elect presidents is because we approve en masse of that president’s philosophy toward the law. This means we elect him so that he can appoint federal judges who will be sympathetic to that philosophy to the federal bench. For going on 40 years, we have seen a long march of conservatism in the federal judiciary, especially at the appellate level, where nobody’s really paying attention until, say, Janice Rogers Brown or someone hands down a decision making thumbscrews legal if the police are acting in good faith. It is not a great stretch to argue that this president was elected (twice) at least partly to reverse the results of that long march. That he is not being allowed to fulfill that part of his mandate does not merely obviate the power of the popularly elected majority in the Senate, it obviates the stated wishes of the entire nation by obviating the power of the popularly elected president of the United States. This is mucking around with two of the three branches of the federal government in order to work your will in the third. Moreover, it hamstrings future presidents who might share that judicial philosophy by blocking the career paths of like-minded judges. And does anybody seriously believe that the Republicans will not do exactly the same thing if a seat on The Big Court comes open? Please….
Comrade Scrutinizer
Yes, well. Not holding my breath.
Yatsuno
@Comrade Scrutinizer: Agreed. Definitely in believe it when I see it territory here.
ppcli
Let’s say that the filibuster is “preserved”, and these three seats on the DC circuit go unfilled. Does anyone have any doubt that if the Republicans gain a 1-vote majority in the Senate, and (God forbid) they regain the White House, those three seats will be filled with judges to the right of Alito within a month. If the Democrats try to filibuster, the filibuster will be gone with a snap of the fingers. Really: is there one ounce of doubt in anyone’s mind that the Republicans will keep the filibuster just so long as it doesn’t prevent them from doing something they actually care about?
Southern Beale
Funny how it’s “packing the courts!” when a Democrat does it but it’s “stopping the filibuster of people of faith” when Republicans do it. God I am SO over these people.
schrodinger's cat
I say do it!
BGinCHI
If this happens it is going to kill David Broder.
Southern Beale
Pretty sure this headline is designed to turn the fundie faithful against Obamacare:
lamh36
Evening BJ peeps.
So ok, I don’t cook often, but this is what happens when I do…lol. What can I say, I had a craving…LOL! Now I got too much food! Funny thing is I cook it, but I don’t eat alot of it. So my college student sister gets to have a good meal fot the next couple of days…lol
Baked Mac & Cheese and NOLA style Stuffed Bell Peppers
The bell peppers on the left are before I baked them, after you bake them, they should look like this: NOLA style Stuffed Bell Peppers
Then just because I had some chicken laying around, I made BBQ Chicken too…lol.
schrodinger's cat
BTW I got another FP on ICHC/lolcats this evening. Bebbeh sitting, the kitteh is doing it wrong.
schrodinger's cat
@lamh36: Looks good, what’s the stuffing?
J.Ty
Word on the street is, even DiFi is on board this time.
Howard Beale IV
As long as Harry Reid calls the shots, it ain’t happening.
raven
@lamh36: sweet
schrodinger's cat
I also has a recipe from last night, dal with red lentils.
lamh36
@schrodinger’s cat: NOLA stuffed bell peppers will always have ground beef. Different people add different thing along with the seasoning, but the ones I know are stuff with ground beef and usually shrimp (my aunt likes to add shrimp and crab meat and they are to die for).
Here is a good recipe that I found online:
“COOKING WITH MIA X: CREOLE STUFFED BELL PEPPERS (VIDEO)
The mother of New Orleans gangster music shows us how the Big Easy gets down with stuffed peppers.”
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
Blow it up!
Eric U.
Haven’t eaten since this morning and can’t eat until tomorrow afternoon, so you people just keep posting descriptions of your delicious food so I can enjoy myself vicariously. Or something like that
Aji
@Southern Beale: Well, the Bunny Ranch owner is a hard-core Republican, so they’ve got a problem on their hands. Or on something.
Hal
In all black people look alike news, Armani can’t tell the difference between Idris Elba (a man) and Alfre Woodard (a woman.)
http://jezebel.com/armani-confuses-alfre-woodard-with-idris-elba-prompts-1467378975
raven
@Eric U.: My bride has to do that Thursday-Friday.
PeakVT
Hopefully Reid has the votes now.
Thanks again, Senate fossils, for not seeing the inevitable and preventing the change at the beginning of the session. It’s a bad precedent to set, but there’s really no other choice at this point.
some guy
Senate Minority Leader Give Em Hell Harry has decided he is tired of being the Senate Minority Leader? does anyone have any pearls I can clutch?
Schlemizel
imagine if DumbellU had the gift of free judicial appointments. Yes, I know the Dems did not block nearly as many as the goopers but they stopped some of the worst. Now think of the nutbags he would have seated had there been no control.
Yes, it is shitty what the goopers are doing but we need to consider the long game as the baggers are not all dead yet and they may accidentally win the White House and even the Senate. As satisfying as it would be to do this, as much as the goopers deserve it I am convinced we would live to regret it.
José Arcadío Buendía
@Schlemizel: Thank you for your concern.
cleek
this is the GOP saying “PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE GIVE US ANOTHER EXCUSE TO SAY OBAMA ‘IS A TYRANT’ !!!! (oh and then when we get the Senate, we’ll appoint every lunatic Liberty U grad we can find, and you can’t stop us! ”
doesn’t make it a bad idea. but that’s what’s in store if Reid should do it.
burnspbesq
@BGinCHI:
Under the law of war (and let’s not kid ourselves about what’s happening here), there is no obligation to eliminate collateral damage. All that a combatant is required to do is take reasonable steps to minimize it.
MikeJ
@some guy:
While that’s very amusing, you should wait until you see what the senate is like when the Dems really are a minority. The country is much much much much much better off with a Democratic majority even if they don’t wield it as aggressively as we’d like.
some guy
@MikeJ:
clap louder
burnspbesq
@Southern Beale:
If Congress doesn’t want whores to have health insurance, they should give up their own to set a good example.
PsiFighter37
Believe it when I see it. But there’s nothing that would taste better on top of Thanksgiving than some gravy mixed with wingnut tears.
Do it, Harry.
José Arcadío Buendía
@cleek: That’s what’s in store anyway. That’s the point. The Republicans have demonstrated at every turn they will abuse every process to get the substantive results they want. Impeachment, vote suppression, filibuster abuse, shutting down the government, breaching the debt ceiling, not negotiating on budget—you name it, they’ve done it.
What on god’s green earth makes you think they won’t cross that particular line, especially since the payoff is a lifetime appointee? Even if you lose a senator or two in the process, you’re ahead in the long game.
burnspbesq
@Schlemizel:
A President can only appoint judges when there are vacancies. If Obama fills every vacancy on every Circuit with relatively young, apparently healthy judges of whose judicial philosophy he approves, President Christie will be SOL.
schrodinger's cat
@lamh36:That sounds wonderful! I love shrimp and crabs and Cajun food. I would love to visit NOLA someday!
Cacti
I’d previously been on the other side of this as well, but the GOP has been completely transparent in their desire to keep the DC Circuit a handmaiden for big business.
And FSM knows that if they regained the Presidency and Senate, they’d have zero reservations about nuking the filibuster to pack the federal bench with more knuckle dragging reactionaries. They were the first ones to try the nuclear option, and only failed because there were a handful of senators who still believed in comity. With the rise of teabaggers, those days are long gone.
Comrade Jake
Every time this comes up on this blog I have to laugh, because it will never happen. Senators have a lot of power, and you’re basically asking them to give some up. Forget it.
Reid’s BS is just kabuki theatre.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
How can I get me some of that Obama tyranny??? Who do I have to blow? Line ’em up boys!
some guy
@Comrade Jake:
unlike the 5 previous times, this time Harry really really really really means it. really.
Cacti
@efgoldman:
This.
The GOPers only regret would be that they weren’t able to do it first for Dubya. They consider the nuclear option unfinished business.
Fair Economist
@Schlemizel:
We don’t have to imagine. The Republicans were ready to trash the judicial filibuster and relented only when enough Democrats agreed to lift the filibuster on all nominees except two. In any practical sense, Bush had no limits anyway; the Democrats were only objecting to the nutcases.
Cassidy
@MikeJ: Youre trying to have a conversation with someone who genuinely believes that our lives in the modern US is just as bad as those who lived under East Germany and the NSA is just as bad as the Stasi. It’s up to you whether you should waste your time.
Cassidy
@Cacti: Yup, do it now and get the judges in place.
some guy
@Cassidy:
Look, over there, a progressive. get out your thread badge, and be quick about it.
and nice hyperbole, by the way. does that come included with your Junior Thread Police Kit?
Yatsuno
@burnspbesq:
Let us never speak of this again…
Cassidy
@some guy: That’s the comparison you made. Not my problem you lack context, insight, and education.
TaMara (BHF)
@lamh36: You are trying to kill me. Yum, yum, YUM!
Fair Economist
@Comrade Jake:
If that’s really the case, the filibuster is doomed. Right now all the power in the Senate is in the hands of the 5 least crazy Republican Senators. If the filibuster goes, it’s in the hands of the 10 most conservative Democrats. This is a huge improvement for any Democrat. So if it’s really about power, the filibuster will go away tomorrow.
some guy
In defense of the filibuster, it did allow the Senate Democratic majority to keep rightwing nutcases like Janice Brown and Priscilla Owens out of the judiciary. And imagine how fucked up it would have been if the Senate Dems had allowed a real extremist like Samuel Alito to get put onto the Supreme Court. Unimaginable, so maybe the filibuster does have a role to play.
some guy
@Cassidy:
wow, so you don’t have any actual reading comprehension skills at all? last time I checked, my name wasn’t Mclaren, but hey, I guess conservatives aren’t really too hip on that reading thing these days.
oh well, I am glad actual comprehension isn’t a requirement for Junior Thread Police.
look, over there, a progressive comment. get on it, this thread isn’t gonna police itself, Cassidy.
Omnes Omnibus
@some guy: Until and unless 50 other senators commit to ending the filibuster, it can’t happen. The Majority Leader cannot force other Senators to vote a certain way. He cannot, in the British tradition, “withdraw the whip” and expel someone from the party. He cannot strip committee assignments or chairs. He can threaten that he will make it difficult for someone to move an agenda forward if they do not cooperate, but, since it seems that the opposition to the move is from senior Democrats, that power is rather limited. He can try to persuade – and maybe this move from the GOP has given him the opportunity to do so successfully.
Cassidy
@some guy: Sad that you don’t even have the courage to stand by your stance from just a couple of days ago. You have the convictions of a child. You are no progressive. You’re a petulant brat.
some guy
@Cassidy:
look, over there, a progressive comment. get on it, this thread isn’t gonna police itself, Cassidy.
mdblanche
@cleek: Republicans will whine, Democrats will gloat, the Very Serious will wring their hands, the Village Idiots will dutifully record the whining and the hand-wringing, and the other 96% of the country will neither understand nor care about it assuming they notice it at all.
Lather, rinse, and repeat. Always repeat.
Mike E
@Omnes Omnibus: How much of a “wow” moment would it be if Reid and the senate Dems executed an actual end game maneuver like this, one that basically shows they have finally acknowledged the Repubs’ 30+ year End Gov’t gambit. The press would howl like banshees….but could they weather such a storm?
ETA If the Dems are as fed up as we are hearing, surely they can also muster up some appropriate “Go fuck yourselves” to well deserving targets, both in the press and in the opposite caucus, as a nice answer to the expected “outrage”
some guy
@Omnes Omnibus:
Feinstein and Boxer are in, they say, as does Levin. with Leahy and Schumer also on board he should have at least 51.
oops, edited for clarity. Levin is still a no go, as are Baucus and McCaskill. will be intersting to see a whip count on this.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike E: It would be one of Harry Reid’s finest hours. This and the ACA.
@some guy: If that’s the case and they are solid in support, then I think this will happen.
? Martin
Can we not be afraid of democracy please? Nuke it. If the nation gets a bunch of shithead judges, then elect a better Congress and President. Let’s not hide the problem behind a bunch of procedural rules.
Yatsuno
@Omnes Omnibus: Bored, yer Honour?
Omnes Omnibus
@? Martin: While I agree that the filibuster has reached a point at which it is doing more harm than good – primarily due to one side deciding that the unwritten rules on how the procedure was to be used were not worth the paper on which they were written, procedural rules have their place. In addition, pure democracy has few protections for the rights of the minority; that has value.
askew
@efgoldman:
If the Senate goes nuclear, Obama needs to move a lot faster to make nominations. His admin has been doing the nominations way, way too slowly.
The Senate also needs to get rid of the “blue slip” process. The Republicans already stopped honoring the blue slips in 2005 when they were in charge. But, we have nominees who can’t even get committee votes because Senators in their states are blocking the votes. Leahy has been a disaster as head of Judiciary and has allowed GOP to control the process since 2009.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: According to this, he does not. He does have more power over selection to non-standing committees.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@lamh36:
I’ll have to send that to my friend at work — he’s originally from NOLA and I think he gets a little homesick sometimes. Though he probably already has his own mother’s recipe to make them from.
@Eric U.:
Just pulled a baked ziti with Italian sausage out of the oven. Waiting for G to get home from the gym so we can dine.
You’re welcome. ;-)
Yatsuno
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Heading south NAOW!!! :-P
Just had a case rip my heart out at work. Guy born in 1975 died in 2002. His income source? The Army. At least I was settling the case.
xenos
When the filibuster goes we will start seeing political assassinations again in the US. The professional outrage machine will whip people up to it.
Omnes Omnibus
@xenos: Explain please. I do see signs that we might head that way, but why would killing the filibuster do it?
Larkspur
Holy jeebus do I miss Doghouse Riley.
xenos
@Omnes Omnibus: It is a point of no return for them. Without a death grip on the judiciary they will not have enough of a grip on anything.The nihilism will escalate.
Omnes Omnibus
@xenos: I see what you are saying. I still hold out hope that conservatives will realize that doubling down on the crazy won’t work. It might make them electable again (bad), but it would make governing easier (good). Hi, I’m Pollyanna.
Another Holocene Human
healthcare.gov now working for the spousal unit. It was being all mysterious and shit but it turned out it wanted to know if she smoked. (thanks, Obama!)
So now we are trying to figure out what the hell is the difference between an HMO and a PPO or is it EPO? Well, anyway, besides the vague feeling that HMOs suck.
nm, I found this page
http://www.mass.gov/anf/employee-insurance-and-retirement-benefits/oversight-agencies/gic/epo-ppo-hmo-the-alphabet-soup-that-tells.html
mass.gov, shweet.
Another Holocene Human
@Southern Beale: Predictably the owner is going on about some ignorant ACA-hating shit… so if all of your ’employees’ are ‘independent contractors’ (not uncommon in stripping… or cutting hair, but in that case they pay rent and take their own tips directly) that means you 1099’d them. Are you now saying that the tax authorities disagree with you? Because if they’re still 1099’s then I don’t see how you could possibly be on the hook for their healthcare. In fact it was very clear from the interview with the “girls” that they had been trying to buy in the private markets for years and were frequently turned down.
Also amusing was the fact that this idiot small market station can’t spell “prostitute” in English. I do believe at least one variant they tossed on the screen is intelligible in French.
Another Holocene Human
@Hal: Huh, that’s a really different interpretation of Heimdallr. Always took him as the Norse equivalent of Hermes but, you know, could be richly symbolic.
YellowJournalism
Santorum on Colbert looked pissed by the end when Colbert began zinging him over his stance on gay marriage. Who convinced him to do it, I wonder, and what did Santorum expect?
Colbert looked mighty fine in the sweater vest, I must say.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Holocene Human: You have no idea how many small business owners try the independent contractor dodge. One of my first big jobs as a lawyer was handling a case where our client, a hair salon owner, got sued by a former “independent contractor.” When I read the contract, it was obvious that it was an employment contract not an independent contractor agreement. Our firm told the client to quickly settle. Then we explained to the client he needed to decide between control over his people and responsibility for them. If he wanted to control, he had to take responsibility. If he wanted to avoid responsibility, he had to relinquish control.
? Martin
@Another Holocene Human: I love my HMO. Just got my son through a surgery that due to a phobia he’s been having a fair bit of trouble seeing through. Took 6 attempts (we didn’t recognize the phobia until the 2nd attempt). The doctors and nurses worked through what worked and didn’t work, documented it, and by the last effort accommodated him wonderfully. Took coordination of 3 doctors (one of which was his psychiatrist with the HMO), the anesthesiologist, and the nurses. They did all the hard work, we just provided input for what we thought would/wouldn’t work. We were a bit stunned in the last visit to walk into a hospital surgery center and have every nurse and doctor we talked to fully briefed on my son and what to do/not to do. It was very relieving.
I don’t doubt there are many poor HMOs out there, but none of the people I know in PPOs are as happy as we are, and we’ve gone through a lot of weird shit. There’s been plenty of chances for our HMO to blow it, and they only did once – sorta. Turned out to be a false alarm, but they weren’t sure and they admitted to the potential error immediately.
Omnes Omnibus
@? Martin: I have had great experiences with an HMO nad great experiences with a PPO. Both were were government provided insurance. With the PPO, I had an ACL, MCL and cartilage tear surgery that cost me about $150 out of pocket – from first consult to last PT appointment. The HMO had no co-pays on anything. They fixed all my minor issues during the time I had their coverage for nothing beyond my monthly premiums. I realize how lucky I have been.
Yatsuno
@? Martin: WA has Group Health as the big HMO up here. I know people who love it and people who hate it. Their biggest issue a couple years ago was they were very notorious for cherry-picking their customers even working with large employers. I think they have some ties with Kaiser but not entirely certain on that.
Linkmeister
@some guy: Temporarily. Both of them are judges now.
Omnes Omnibus
@Linkmeister: Jesus, he was being sarcastic. Adjust your snarkmeter. The dude has issues with the Middle East and firebaggerism, but he used the names he did for a reason.
gwangung
@some guy:
Personally, I took your statement at face value. And it was pretty damn insulting.
Y’all need to craft your statements more carefully.
piratedan
just think it’s kind of funny that we’re worried about what the R’s would do if Harry uses this option when I sit back and realize that if the R’s take the Senate we’re fucked anyway, nuclear option or not. I’m fully in favor of Harry going ahead and finally letting his balls drop and getting some work done. Every two years, they change the fucking rules anyway and vote on how they will procedurally do business, it does no good to not use the option because thus far, has ANYONE believed that the R’s have honored the spirit of the agreement? Does ANYONE believe that if Harry does this that the media will look at the litany of broken promises from the R’s on procedural agreements? The answer is Fuck and No, so don’t worry about it, those fuckers are in the bag for the R’s anyway, lets stop dancing around the hedge and get some shit done.
Omnes Omnibus
@piratedan: It’s not Reid. It was a number of senior Democratic senators who cared more about their own power tahn anything else. Enough of them may have come around. Reid, IMO, has done as well as possible with what he has with which to work.
Origuy
@Another Holocene Human: At the end of the video, it says that the owner, Dennis Hof, is unhappy because his seven small businesses are lumped together by the ACA. I know he has multiple Nevada brothels, but I don’t know if he has other types of business. In any case, he probably has non-prostitute employees in those businesses. If they all get lumped together, there are probably enough to go over the limit so that he has to get them insurance.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: I know Omnes, and getting the Dems all on the same page is like herding cats, but tbh, IF I was Harry, I would have dropped this sucker the first time that the R’s reneged on the agreement, which was like what, a week later? Perhaps doing so or at least lobbying to do so amongst his fellow Dems might have prevented some of the idiocy that has been ongoing this session.
Omnes Omnibus
@Origuy: Nah, it’s the independent contractor dodge I references above. People call someone an independent contractor but make the person act as an employee. Fuck ’em. It is one or the other.
Omnes Omnibus
@piratedan: I know this is a minority opinion on this blog and only Kay and I think he is competent and tough, but I think he has done the best he could with who he has in his caucus. If he has the people, he will make it happen.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m mixed on him tbh, I know that he’s done some good things and I do acknowledge that he’s saddled with the likes of Landrieu, Manchin and Feinstein but for fucks sake, if he’s having problems getting his caucus to tow the line, he never seems to rely on the Oval Office for a hand. He also could perhaps do a better job of getting more Dem faces in front of cameras but who knows, we don’t use folks like Franken, Warren, Brown or Gilliland nearly as often as we should.
Omnes Omnibus
@piratedan: The title of Majority Leader indicates more power that the job has. He doesn’t have the authority to pick who is the spokesperson on various issues. He has a number of procedural mechanisms to use and he has done as well as he could with them.
mai naem
@Omnes Omnibus: A neighbor of a friend of mine is a medical assistant(not to confused with physician’s assistant) and the husband and wife physician team she was working for at their office were treating her as an independent contractor. I was just like wow! You gotta have some balls to do that. She also was not allowed any 15 min. work breaks(who knew that was legal.) We both told her the indy contractor was illegal but she didn’t want to lost the job. Also, I am guessing she wasn’t covered under worker’s comp if she got injured,like say, catching AIDs or Hepatitis.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well, too, the situation isn’t the same as the last time. The (fake) objection to Cordray was that Congress doesn’t have enough control over his agency.
Republicans are now saying Obama cannot seat judges. No judges. At all:
It’s akin to them shutting down the government to overturn the health care law. They’re blowing up the structure, the process, the framework. They’re not just punching holes in the drywall. Now they’re smashing away at load-bearing walls.
Reid is actually defending process here, which is also what he was doing on the shut down.
Schlemizel
@Cacti:
Thats a maybe, but they will be responsible for that. If we give them the hammer we take responsibility for that.
NonyNony
@Schlemizel:
“Advise and consent” should not mean a nearly 2/3 majority to confirm a candidate. This is a new thing in the last few decades and it needs to end. Presidents – no matter which party they belong to – should be allowed to appoint the people they want within reason, and a 2/3 majority requirement is not reasonable.
The Supreme Court is a bit different, and I can see an argument for preserving the filibuster there and requiring greater consent among the legislators (though the Republicans will blow that up if they need to the next time they’re in power), but there is no reason whatsoever that every other appointment that a President tries to make should need a 2/3 majority to happen.
Lurking Canadian
I’m all for it, but how can this happen now? I thought rule changes were limited to the beginning of the session.
Patricia Kayden
@some guy: So if all Dems aren’t for it, it sounds like a no go. Too bad.
Cacti
@Schlemizel:
Thats a maybe, but they will be responsible for that. If we give them the hammer we take responsibility for that.
Yeah…I’m not much for “moral” victories, where the “loser” gets to make lifetime appointments to the federal bench, and the “winner” gets to…feel good about themselves.
mellowjohn
@Omnes Omnibus:
HARRY REID: “Senator, we’re gonna need to go ahead and move you downstairs into storage B. We have some new people coming in, and we need all the space we can get. So if you could just go ahead and pack up your stuff and move it down there, that would be terrific, OK?”
feebog
@piratedan:
This is exactly right. If Dems lose six seats in November 2014 Obama is never going to have another judicial nomination approved by the Senate. Basically, it is now or never. I say change the rules now, fill every vacancy in the next 10 months and flip the Republicans off as we do it.
Also, too, for those who don’t think HR will pull the trigger, he threatened to go nuclear with the Cabinet and Administrative nominations and the Republicans totally caved. I think the Republican’s double dog dare this time will allow him to pull the trigger.
J R in WV
I’ve reached the point where I think the Majority Leader and the President need to fill every opening in the government, right now.
F the R’s and their anti-American attitudes!