Mitch McConnell is a despicable and vile creature, I agree, but he’s a cunning fucker, too. Norm Ornstein:
“For whatever reason, the Republicans decided to go nuclear first, with this utterly unnecessary violation of their own agreement and open decision to block the president from filling vacancies for his entire term, no matter how well qualified the nominees,” Ornstein told TPM in an email. “It was a set of actions begging for a return nuclear response.”
He also speculated that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) secretly wanted Democrats to go nuclear so he could use the same tactic to end the filibuster entirely if and when Republicans take the majority.
It sure does look like McConnell pushed this confrontation by going back on his agreement to stop obstructing. And Norm is right: if the Republicans do get a majority in the Senate, the first thing McConnell will do is end the filibuster. Maybe he needed “cover” or an excuse, but the guy who was parroting “up or down vote” a few years ago isn’t worried about looking a fool when changing his tune. Plus, he’s some kind of Voldemort who can erase the memories of the stenographic DC press corpse, so I doubt this move was to help preserve appearances. That leaves me at a loss to explain why he did it.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not surprised he did it, I’m surprised at the timing of it. I would have bet on McConnell dancing around the edge of breaking the no filibuster agreement by throwing a bunch of sand in the gears for a few more months before Reid was finally provoked to kill the filibuster. Maybe the tough challenge he’s facing in his campaign has made him lose his grip.
That said, it sure is fun to watch Grandpa McCain whine about the “travesty” of the rules change. He’s butthurt that he can’t be part of a “Gang of Seven” or “Gagglefuck of 14” or “Circlejerk of 6” whenever there’s an important appointment that’s being filibustered. He’ll just have to vote “No” on every goddam Obama appointee just like he always wanted to do, without the accompaniment of TV cameras and handjobs from serious centrist pundits. I only hope Reid kills the filibuster completely so we can hear more squawking from that doddering old fool.
HinTN
Rs were going to kill it the first time they had the majority and the presidency anyway. Now O just needs to nominate for all the open judiciary slots NOW.
Napoleon
@HinTN:
I got $100 that says Obama fucks around for the next 3 years on the nominations. He has spent 5 years committing political malpractice failing to nominate enough people to fill open slots and I don’t see him finally waking up and doing it now.
The Tragically Flip
Republicans might end the filibuster at some point, but I don’t think it will be a day-1 thing if they take the Majority. It will be over something they really really want to do. They won’t just do it so the Republican congress can pass populist bills for Obama to veto. There would need to be a President willing to sign whatever benighted law they were trying to pass.
But at least the Senate has stopped living in delusional fantasy land where they all pretend that the 60 vote threshold was some real thing they couldn’t do anything about, rather than a gentlemen’s agreement written on an easily tearable cocktail napkin. The filibuster was only ever a thing so long as the majority chose to tolerate it. Even 5 years ago piles of D Senators would still lament the need for 67 votes to change the rules when asked about filibuster reform, it was always bullshit. Now at least these excuses won’t fly if the D majority lets the minority block some major bill.
This was also why it was never ever going to be allowed to be useful to liberals. In the event there was ever a conservative legislative priority pending and a D led filibuster was the only thing stopping it, the filibuster was going to be killed. Period. It was never going to save Social Security or anything else liberals care about.
HinTN
@Napoleon: @Napoleon:Sadly, I’m not taking that bet.
OzarkHillbilly
I’m not. He wants to be majority leader in 2015. Therefor he needs to paint the Democrats as being “out of control” in order to at least assist a Republican resurgence in the elections of 2014.(after the last 2 elections, he’s not taking any more chances) This is his last shot at becoming Majority leader because 2016 will be a loss for the Repubs (unless we have the 2nd Coming and they manage to nominate Jesus for Prez)(highly unlikely as I don’t think Jesus would accept a nomination from the party of the anti-Christ). After that the demographics just get worse and worse for the GOP.
The Tragically Flip
Remember: Last time Republicans threatened to kill the filibuster in 2005, Dems caved and saved them the trouble. Bush’s nominations were all confirmed and Dems got to “keep” the filibuster in exchange for never using it. Win-Win.
If the 2017 GOP Congress is trying to pass the Transvaginal Ultrasound Act and President Paul is waiting to sign it, the GOP will kill the filibuster, but they’ll give the Dems a chance to form a useless Gang-of-Idiots and “save” it in exchange for allowing the act to pass and a couple of the historic pens Paul used to sign the bill.
Southern Beale
Unrelated, but didn’t see this anywhere: husband of Katherine Harris, the former Florida Secy. of State of 2000 election fame, committed suicide.
Story says he had some health issues.
Southern Beale
RE: filibuster, the Free Republic was hilarious yesterday. Fascism has come to America! Freedom died today! Blah blah.
Keep wanting to remind the Teadiots that the filibuster is not in the constitution, anywhere. They should be thanking Harry Reid for doing what Bill Frist could not/would not. Right?
The Family Research Council and Focus on the Family and all of those folks who organized those Justice Sunday events back in 2005-2006 advocating for this very thing should be sending Harry Reid thank you notes for doing what they wanted 8 years ago. RIGHT?!
J.D. Rhoades
An NPR reporter committed actual journalism yesterday by asking some GOP Senator “well, if the filibuster is so important, and you’re so sure there’ll be a Republican majority, will that majority put it back in the rules when they’re in power?” Answer: Hem, haw, “Well, we don’t know what’s going to happen, but let me reiterate my bullshit talking point….”
Also, too, when some Teabagger starts complaining about “Democratic Power grab” ask him/her “where is the filibuster in the Constitution?” I mean, “you need to read the Constitution” is their favorite little sneer, right?
Southern Beale
@J.D. Rhoades:
Saw that question being asked of John McCain this morning, he said he thought that it wouldn’t ever be reinstated because there were a few Senators who didn’t want to see it put back.
J.D. Rhoades
@Southern Beale:
Did he mention whether those Senators had a (D) or an (R) next to their names?
Baud
@J.D. Rhoades:
That’s my response. If the Republicans aren’t committing to reinstate it — in other words, if everyone agrees that it should stay gone — why should I care?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
It was evil, short sighted, stupid and he is a Republican, why are you surprised?
MomSense
Chuck Toad is very concerned that the filibuster will cause acrimony and lead to a govt. shutdown — because taking the entire global economy hostage to try and kill a law that had been on the books for three years is such a reasonable approach to governance.
EconWatcher
Mistermix, your writing is becoming positively Tboggian. And of course, that’s a huge compliment.
mattminus
It should be clear by now that the modern GOP has no concern for consistency and is immune to charges of hypocrisy. They care about one thing, raw power (and not the good Iggy Pop kind). The bottom line is that if eliminating the filibuster could advance the Rep agenda, anyone who didn’t vote for the rule change would be primaried by someone promising to go double nuclear and, for good measure, then pass a law requiring all Democrats to wear pink underwear.
I don’t think Septuagenarian Mutant Bastard Turtle is playing 11 dimensional chess. Rather, the more parsimonious explanation is that he thought the democrats would be willing to get rolled again, as they have every time they’ve negotiated on this matter.
OzarkHillbilly
@Southern Beale:
They have a slightly different definition of freedom than we do. Ooooppss, wait a minute, they were talking about Freedom! ™ My bad.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
The senate already over represents small shit hole states. The filibuster makes it more undemocratic. The R’s should have ended it when they threatened to in the oughts. Let the voters decide when the Senate has gone too far.
raven
@mattminus: I’m not into this both sides do it shit but when they play footage of Obama and Reid using the very same terminology as the pukes in regard to the nuke it’s hard to get all tangled up in “consistency hypocrisy.”
Baud
@MomSense:
One of the interesting things about modern politics is the way the GOP is treated as having no agency, but is some sort of inanimate object that the Democrats have a duty to control. Not just the media; I see it on blogs too.
I mean, the GOP was overtly threatening revenge yesterday, and no one has batted an eye. “Of course they can retaliate — it’s their entitlement.”
low-tech cyclist
Stan Collender was saying this morning on NPR’s Morning Edition that this will make it a lot harder for the Dems and GOP to arrive at a budget deal.
My only question is, how??
The Tragically Flip
@low-tech cyclist: Budgets can be passed under reconciliation anyway. No Senate deal is even needed.
Patrick
@Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937:
Amen. I don’t understand why people are so afraid of democracy. If the other side wins, then they deserve to do whatever in charge. And if they go too far, then the voters (if they care) will vote to defeat them in the next election. It works fine in other countries. Why not there?
And the way the filibuster has been used over the last five years; that’s no way to run a country. The president needs to be allowed to have his appointments a vote.
artem1s
and all McConnell had to fall back on was ‘this is just a cover for how bad Obamacare is”. That was pretty much the line from the GOP all day. Do they think this is some ironical twist in the 11 dimension chess where the Senate kills ACA in 2015 by completely doing away with the filibuster? And then they get to say that its all the Dems fault for that thing they did back in 2013 to let O pack the courts? Part of me believes that McConnell thinks he is playing some tricky long con.
Personally, I would love it if Reid ran through all the appointments asap and then bring the thing up for a vote to revert back to the old rules. give the asshats a chance to put it back, say, the Friday before the first Tuesday in November, 2014 or sometime during the lame duck congress of 2016. An October surprise for team Cruz/Santorum.
JordanRules
@Baud: That’s a great observation that I don’t think is visited enough. They are the party of privilege.
Linda Featheringill
@Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937:
I’ve never told you how much I enjoy your nom!
:-)
Tractarian
No point in eliminating the filibuster for legislation unless Dems have a House majority.
mattminus
@raven:
Yeah, I was probably not as clear as I could have been. I agree with you that both sides are going to be hypocrites about this, as the minority will always be for the filibuster and the majority will always be all “upperdown”. I also don’t believe that arguing hypocrisy gets you anywhere. Being a hypocrite has no bearing on whether you’re right or wrong.
My overarching point was that I think we’re over-reading the GOP’s tactical considerations when we look at this as something McConnell instigated by design, as he simply doesn’t need any cover to explain why his 2015 position is diametrically opposed to his 2013 position. No one who votes for him will care about consistency above advancing their agenda.
In fairness, you could probably say the same of the Democrats. The only difference being that we still have a rump of fossils like Levin that apparently believe in comity, tradition, etc. and will foolishly vote against their party’s interests for the sake of these principles.
rikyrah
GOP antics may lead to a ‘de-Americanized world’
10/15/13 02:10 PM
By Steve Benen
When there’s a global economic crisis, investors from around the world have spent the last several generations doing one thing: they buy U.S. treasuries. The reasoning, of course, is that there is no safer investment, anywhere on the planet, than the United States of America – which has the strongest and largest economy on the planet, and which always pays its bills.
All of these assumptions, of course, were cultivated over generations, and pre-date the radicalization of the Republican Party.
But what happens when U.S. treasuries are no longer considered safe, Americans can no longer be counted on to pay its bills, and the nation’s most powerful economy chooses to default on purpose? The world starts reevaluating old assumptions, that’s what.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-antics-may-lead-de-americanized?lite=
raven
@mattminus: I’m witcha
rikyrah
Cruz again huddles with his House GOP flock
10/15/13 10:57 AM
By Steve Benen
Late last month, with just a few days remaining before the shutdown deadline, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) still hoped to avoid the crisis. House Republicans therefore turned toSen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to offer them guidance – and he urged House GOP lawmakers to ignore their own leaders and stick to his plan. House Republicans agreed and the government’s lights went out four days later.
Last night, Washington found itself facing a similar dynamic. Once again, there’s a compromise that could probably pass the House if it were brought to the floor for a vote; there’s a House Speaker hoping to avoid a crisis; and there are radicalized House Republicans who don’t realize they’re playing a bad hand poorly.
And once again, four days before an important deadline, House GOP members turned to the junior senator from Texas.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/cruz-again-huddles-his-house-gop-flock?lite=
aimai
@OzarkHillbilly: I just don’t think McConnell really cared about the timing of this roll back. And I think they didn’t think Reid would do it. And I really don’t think they cared about being accused of being not nice or whatever for doing it themselves.
debbie
I think this is another example of Republicans’ total dissemblance of the truth. You know McConnell was planning on doing this himself once the GOP had succeeded in suppressing voting rights. Rove’s drive for a permanent majority isn’t a pipe dream for these guys.
Violet
Filibuster by morning, up from Comity.
Every vote that I’ve got is just an up or down.
When the cameras go on and the pundits fawn
I’ll be voting on the Congress floor.
Filibuster by morning, Filibuster you’re no more.
catclub
@HinTN: I would. There is nothing on the legislative agenda.
There is obviously EPA and and carbon regulations. Judges and executive branch appointments are the only game in town.
debbie
Talk about delusion: Glenn Beck is insisting that if JFK were alive today, he’d belong to the Tea Party.
VOR
@Napoleon: It is possible nominations were so slow because the Obama administration was trying to find candidates who could avoid a filibuster. If so, the folly of that approach is now clear – everyone got filibustered, even former Republican Senators. But now we just need nominees who can get 51 votes so perhaps it will be easier to provide candidates.
hoodie
It’s part of an ongoing ploy to put pressure on red state dems, building a campaign theme of a heightened need to elect GOPers to the Senate to reign in the Kenyan Usurper, who now will be freely populating the federal judiciary and administrative agencies with leftist commissars. The fact that it conveniently does away with the filibuster without GOP fingerprints is an ancillary benefit. I imagine that Reid had been avoiding pulling the trigger for this very reason. Now, however, it looks like the Dems may have decided to quit playing not to lose.
catclub
@Violet: Is that to the tune of “I Owe my soul to the company store.”?
Poopyman
@rikyrah: File under “No shit, Sherlock”.
MattF
I think McConnell has a case of Obsessive Obama Disorder. He’s ‘way too smart to say much in public, but he’s handy with that knife.
Southern Beale
@debbie:
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !!!!!
Belafon
You’re thinking too hard. McConnell, like all Republicans, is doing it to advance the interests of the wealthy, and specifically wealthy white males. He was for up-or-down during Bush to get conservatives on the courts. He’s against it now because it keeps progressives or moderates off the courts. He’ll start it back up if he gets in charge with a Republican president. Hell, if we ended up with a Republican president and Democratic senate, he’d argue that the president should have the right to appoint people without confirmation.
Southern Beale
This from the party which would reject Ronald Reagan if he were alive and in office today.
Ha ha ha ha !!!!
Southern Beale
Bumper crop of good news today, folks. It’s my Good News Friday post.
Violet
@catclub: No, it’s “I owe my soul to the rodeo”. It’s “Amarillo by Morning,” just in case you really didn’t know.
catclub
@raven: The difference is that what the GOP violated were the unwritten norms. You can filibuster some particular _one_ but to filibuster ALL is to break the unwritten norm – which is that the government has to run and the Senate has to cooperate to make it run – like in confirming nominees. Reid would not have blown up the filibuster if there had been progress on most nominees. But when ALL nominees are filibustered, the norms are broken.
This was relatively sly by the GOP. They can point to what Reid and Obama said in 2005.
They do not mention that the Democrats were still within the rules of the unwritten norm.
The GOP isn’t.
the Conster
Gagglefuck is my new favorite word.
Suffern ACE
@MomSense: also, they keep acting as if this came out of the blue. The republicans promised on several occasions to stop their obstruction, and then reneged. How was that “building the comity” that’s apparently necessary for this institution to function?
Cacti
I’ll go for the simpler explanation.
McConnell upped his douchebaggery because he’s getting primaried from the right in Kentucky. He’s in an awkward spot w/ Obamacare because it’s working great in KY, and he can’t exactly run on “vote for me, and I promise to take away the healh coverage y’all just got!”
He’s painted into a corner, so being a complete prick is all he’s got left.
Napoleon
@VOR:
I really hope you are right. You would also think that Harry Reid has liened on Obama to make as many as rapidly as possible so that they can vote on as many as possible before the election season heats up. If I was Reid I would have told him “look, I am willing to blow up the filibuster but only if you are going to pick up the pace on nominations so its not all for naught.”
catclub
@Violet: I really didn’t. Thanks.
Suffern ACE
@hoodie: Reid was avoiding pulling the trigger because he did not have the votes to do so. It would have been rather embarrassing for him to call the vote and lose. But Frank Laurenberg died. John Kerry was replaced. And after the Republicans reneged on their agreement again, they finally managed to piss off Dianne Feinstein enough to switch sides.
Violet
@catclub: George Strait song. I love his voice. Amarillo by Morning. I think I love this version even more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3CWNLhW140
OzarkHillbilly
@aimai: Maybe, but in a city like DC where nobody takes a dump w/o putting a political spin on it, my bet is they had a reason for it, something beyond, fwck Obama.
Dead Ernest
@artem1s:
Damn Arty*
A wonderful idea.
Also, the most clever & entertaining of all the responses to this most recent episode of Sideshow Bob’s Sorry Senate Circus I’ve seen so far.
*if ‘Arty’ is too familiar/casual, I do sincerely apologize. I guess I just became a fan …and I don’t yet know if your The Cute One, or The Smart One, or, likely, The Funny One.
Cheers,?
raven
@Violet: Terry Stafford song covered by George.
...now I try to be amused
@Cacti:
Yep, Occam’s Razor would suggest this. Just as GOP officeholders would screw the country for the benefit of the party, they would screw the party for the benefit of their re-election.
mai naem
@Suffern ACE: DiFi got pissed off apparently when one of the anti abortion laws was upheld by the DC Court of Appeals.
I can understand the GOP fighting tooth and nail on the court stuff. It’s completely wrong and undemocratic but I can understand them doing it. It’s the executive appointments that drives me crazy. How are you supposed to run the government without administrators? Do they run their offices without their chiefs of staff? WTF? I know that’s the feature not the bug, but this is stuff like the DHS and DOD. Are you fucking kidding me?
Anyhow, the thing that I’ve been wondering about is whether this nuclear option was detonated partly because Obama couldn’t replace Sebelius if he wanted to get rid of her because of the O-care rollout.
raven
@catclub: You are thinking of 16 Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford.
debbie
@catclub:
Exactly. Republicans once again overreached. And yet, they never seem to realize that about themselves.
JPL
When each nominee comes to the floor will they still have a thirty hour debate? There is a lot of nominees waiting and unless they can debate them ten at a time, it will still take a long time before confirmation.
Violet
@raven: True enough. I prefer the George Strait version. It’s such a classic cowboy song, though.
ericblair
@Baud:
Control not only the Republicans, but every foreign country as well. If you follow another country’s domestic news you can see how cartoonish and arrogant some of the US media and blog coverage is with respect to that country. It’s like foreign countries have no history, no internal struggles and power factions, and just exist as faceless opponents or hapless victims of US power. Both left and right media and blogs do this. It goes the other way, of course; other countries make the same mistake with the added bonus of using the US as a catch-all excuse for every bad thing that happens.
Suffern ACE
So which of these appointments that have stalled are actually objectionable? I haven’t been following them closely, I admit. But have the republicans even bothered to point to these “scary” ultra-lefty nominees and make the case that they are stealth commies who hate America and who want to give your kids drugs and porn?
rikyrah
Georgia GOP dusts off Jim Crow tactic: Changing election date
11/22/13
For years, Augusta, Georgia, has held its local elections in November, when turnout is high. But last year, state Republicans changed the election date to July, when far fewer blacks make it to the polls.
The effort was blocked under the Voting Rights Act (VRA) by the federal government, which cited the harm that the change would do to minorities. But now that the Supreme Court has badly weakened the landmark civil rights law, the move looks to be back on. The city’s African-Americans say they know what’s behind it.
“It’s a maneuver to suppress our voting participation,” Dr. Charles Smith, the president of Augusta’s NACCP branch, told msnbc.
The dispute is flaring at a time when Georgia, long deep-red, is becoming increasingly politically competitive, and Democrats have nominated two candidates with famous names for high-profile statewide races next year.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/georgia-revives-jim-crow-tactic
Citizen_X
Pah. Every greenhorn Republican novitiate gets that power as soon as they take their vows.
raven
@Violet: Oh yea, he nails it.
Tomolitics
I don’t buy Ornstein’s premise any more than I buy the “power grab” meme. Because they believe in governing, the Dems don’t really use the filibuster for nominees when in the minority–and not at all for Supremes–so they haven’t given up anything. If the GOP gains power they’ll get the same up or down votes they always got, as should be the President’s right . In this instance the GOP & McConnell in particular thought there would be no price to pay for their obstruction, Reid finally called their bluff and they lost. Simple as that.
GregB
@debbie:
It’s part and parcel of the revisionist delusion that most of the American political right engages in on a daily basis.
According to them Martin Luther King was a conservative Republican who helped the rest of the conservative Republicans pass civil rights legislation without any help from liberal Democrats who were all racists and still are and they also started the Klan you know.
I heard some tea-bagging nitwit in NH railing on about how the conservatives in America won World War II. Only the conservatives of the time were actually Hitler fanboys who were isolationist and didn’t want to fight that war.
Oh yeah, fascism was also a movement that started in the political left.
It’s quite a world when there is never any reckoning for your ideology because it is the font of all that is good and magical and your politcal foes are the source of every great evil perpetrated.
Word has it that Ghengis Khan was a liberal Democrat.
Jeffro
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s an actual book, ya know (“Freedom tm”) And a darned good one at that.
Linda Featheringill
@Southern Beale:
Good news . . . .
Very nice. BTW, I have enjoyed your blog roll for some time now. Lots of interesting stuff there.
And why is Oklahoma so windy? :-)
Violet
@rikyrah: I think a good strategy is to say, “The Republicans don’t want you to vote. They keep making it more difficult for you by doing X, Y, Z. Are you going to let them get away with that?” Ads targeting minorities, students, women, etc. saying that sort of thing.
liberal
@Napoleon: iirc Clinton was slow, too.
The only explanation I can come up with is that, while there _is_ a difference between the parties, the Dems are overall still a pro business party, and biz s aren’t in a particular hurry to have Ds appoint judges who might not be 1,000 percent supportive of the biz agenda.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@EconWatcher:
I agree!
OzarkHillbilly
@Suffern ACE: That goes with out saying seeing as that evul soshulist nomimated dem.
ericblair
@…now I try to be amused:
Now that they have the Tea Party working like the Soviet political officer corps to punish any deviation from orthodoxy, they’ve gotten themselves in a serious collective action problem. As a bunch of lunatics screaming about the evils of collectivism, it’s heartwarmingly ironic.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I suspect I already know the answer, but have any VSPs pointed that one the reasons McCain was so intractable on judges was because his sidekick Senator Waylon Smithers Graham needed to prove to the SC Tea Baggers how very very macho and butch he is?
Villago Delenda Est
There is no need to obliviate those who are so fucking willing to do your bidding anyways. This is also why there’s no need to Imperius the lickspittles.
Suffern ACE
@GregB: except Ghengis Khan was no fan of Muslims, unlike his hippy descendants like Tamerlane. Ghengis totes would be onboard with Pam Gellar and the anti-sharia kooks.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@debbie:
Maybe he means if Kennedy had lived after the assassination attempt with half of his brain gone?
OzarkHillbilly
@Jeffro: Damn. Did not know that. Once again it is proven that “There is no such thing as originality, only undiscovered plagarism.”
Busted.
Tone in DC
@rikyrah:
They are getting desperate. Next thing, they’ll store the voting machines for certain districts at someone’s house, and act as if they can’t find them on election day.
Off topic, but more ridiculous behavior by Bozo Bozell:
http://wonkette.com/534909/pornghazigate-guy-what-photographed-naked-ladies-also-took-pictures-of-barack-obama-this-one-time#more-534909
MomSense
@Baud:
The GOP is incredibly dysfunctional-passive aggressive-insane! Our media enable them big time.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Cacti:
This. McConnell only has one agenda: Whatever benefits McConnell.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
But he’ll always have “the Keating Five.”
Suffern ACE
@Tone in DC: well no wonder Obama wants to use his own photographer and control what images of him get published. Who knew that he was getting nekkid at those fundraisers.
priscianus jr
This doesn’t make any sense. I mean, it’s logical, except that the likelihood of them winning a majority in the senate any time soon is not great. So if that’s what they were thinking, they were deliberately taking a big risk with a big downside. I do not believe this is the correct explanation.
I think the real strategy was to muscle Reid like they always do, and get him to compromise on one confirmation out of three. There is some evidence that they were trying that. They assumed Reid was once again just bluffing.
Reid snookered McConnell not vice versa. And he did it because he realized he couldn’t count on McConnell ever agin not to go back on his word.
C.V. Danes
As it should be and, hence, why elections matter. The goal should be to make sure that the Repubs, in their current incarnation, never regain control of the Senate.
Villago Delenda Est
@Southern Beale:
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: Obama needs to get his thin blah ass in gear and get those FEMA camps up and running so these twits can be processed into something useful. Like Soylent Green.
schrodinger's cat
I present, The Man of the moment, Harry Reid.
Belafon
@liberal: Or there’s the explanation that, since Democrats actually want to govern, they don’t just run down a checklist of who deserves to get the next job.
Villago Delenda Est
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
Which means Kennedy would have more functional brains that Glenn Beck could even imagine having.
Belafon
@Villago Delenda Est: It would taste bad, too astroturphy.
Elizabelle
@priscianus jr:
I think McConnell overplayed and then realized Reid had the votes this time.
You could see it watching C-Span. McConnell starts out strong with “Obamacare, Obamacare, dog on Obamacare” but was more sober and way quieter a few minutes later. He tried but failed to get the Senate adjourned until 5:00 p, so his side could regroup.
Could have been an act, but I think the GOP thought Reid did not have the votes. The bluster disappeared when he realized Reid did.
...now I try to be amused
@ericblair:
If Stalin were alive today he’d say, “It takes a brave man not to be a screaming lunatic in the Republican Party!”
priscianus jr
@Tomolitics:
In this instance the GOP & McConnell in particular thought there would be no price to pay for their obstruction, Reid finally called their bluff and they lost. Simple as that.
Yup. I had to read to the 69th comment (yours) to find somebody smart enough to agree with me. Nice going.
dedc79
Here’s hoping a lot of older federal judges, both dem and republican appointees, retire over the course of the next three years and get replaced with lots of young liberal judges. Now that we’ve gone down this road (and i think the Dems were given virtually no choice but to do this), we need to take full advantage of the opportunity.
Elizabelle
@dedc79:
Job creation! It can be the “young judges employment act.”
Debbie(aussie)
Why would voting in July reduce the AA turnout?
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Belafon: Haha!!!!!
Chris
@ericblair:
“Truman lost China!”
“Carter lost Iran!”
“It’s thanks to Bush that democracy is spreading around the Middle East!”/”It’s Obama’s fault that the Middle East is descending into Muslim Brotherhood themed chaos!” [depending on what day it is]
And of course, who can forget “Reagan brought down the Soviet Union.”
priscianus jr
@Elizabelle: I think McConnell overplayed and then realized Reid had the votes this time.
I’ll buy that. But the question is, when did he realize it? If it was before the actual vote, then he had already painted himself into a corner and tried to save the situation by floating the idea of a compromise (one confirmation). But it was too late. Which suggests (along with other evidence over he years) that Reid has wanted to do this for a long time but just did not have the votes until now. (Boxer & Feinstein have recently flipped.) And that’s pretty much what I was saying.
Or did McConnell not realize it until the actual vote? If so, he is a very poor leader.
Bobby Thomson
@Napoleon: What constitutes fucking around? Does he have to fill 100% of the currently open slots? 90%? 70%? What about slots that become open? And is this three years from today, or do all nominations made in the lame duck count?
JPL
@Debbie(aussie): My guess would be, November dates often have both state and local candidates so turn out is higher.
negative 1
@The Tragically Flip: It also assumes they wouldn’t have done it when they grabbed the majority anyway.
schrodinger's cat
@ericblair:
Blaming everything on the “foreign hand” aka the CIA.
Belafon
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: I thought I would throw up a random theory as well.
At the same time, a lot of people who never thought Reid would go through with his threat are now arguing that Obama won’t fill seats for various reasons, such as “he’s in the pocket of big business.” I have yet to see a judge he’s nominated that fits that description.
raven
@Debbie(aussie): Cuz it’s hot’n mofo in Columbia County in July!
MikeJ
@raven:
There’s a big difference between the way the Dems used the filibuster when in the minority and the way the Republicans did.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/dk-production/images/57533/large/DPCC_Cloture-Votes-01.png
Bobby Thomson
@Linda Featheringill: I always heard that joke the other way; i.e., why is Kansas so windy? Hint: it’s the same reason Texas doesn’t fall into the Gulf of Mexico.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Belafon: My own personal theory is that the Obama folks are too worried about nominating a scandal.
Debbie(aussie)
Thanks for the replies. Things are different here; three levels of gov’t, federal, state and local; three different elections, roughly three years apart, whenever. Always on a Saturday 8 to 6. We don’t vote for school boards or sheriffs or judges either.
I hope this rule/standard change improves things in the way you hope and at the same time confuses and befuddles the opposition.
raven
@MikeJ: Amazing it took so long for someone to say that.
rdldot
@Tone in DC: No joke. The first time I voted in my neighborhood (ca 1984) the polling place was down the street in someone’s garage. Yeah… Texas.
Napoleon
@Bobby Thomson:
He really should have a nominee for any slot which has opened or he has been told will be open, say around 60 or 90 days or something like that from it opening. The Surpreme Court is one thing but for courts of appeals and trial courts there is no good reason that more or less on day one of his presidency he had a short list of candidates for every court in the land so that when an opening happens you can move pretty quick on a replacement.
piratedan
@priscianus jr: Reid has been herding cats on this issue because there’s a group of long time Dem Senators that have been used to just seeing all of this R’s grandstanding as just “the usual rhetoric and they don’t really mean it” within their own DC bubble, folks like Levin, Feinstein, Boxer et al. When the R’s continually backslide and renege on the previous handshake agreements that have been made before and continue to abuse them (remember the original deal, where the Filibuster would be allowed to remain for when R’s had serious questions about candidates) when people are cleared by the actual sub-committees and then blocked anyway. I think a previous poster is correct about the latest crap response from the DC Circuit was Feinstein’s last straw and she relented and harry got his last votes.
Now, we may see all of those folks still twisting in the wind, finally get a vote and some vacancies filled.
Jennifer
@piratedan: Yep (about the DC Circuit). As I said yesterday, this shit about “we think it should only have 8 judges” was just a bullshit excuse to keep 3 vacancies open until the next Republican presidency. Suddenly the Republicans would decide that the circuit really needs 11 judges after all.
piratedan
@Napoleon: may already be in place, remember, they’ve been blocking folks for years, to assume that no one isn’t in the pipeline is unrealistic methinks
TriassicSands
Which is why you should reconsider Ornstein’s explanation, an explanation I believe to be correct. Ornstein has shown in the past he understands the Modern Republican Party and is one of the few who has placed the responsibility for our current political dysfunction right where it belongs — on Republicans.
I’ve always been ambivalent about ending the filibuster, because I think it is a tool the Democrats may need to save the US from some of the worst depredations the Republications have in store for us when they regain the Senate. Of course, Obama’s veto can still prevent catastrophe for another two years beyond 2014, but should the GOP take the White House in 2016 the danger will be almost incalculable (except the Dems could possibly regain control of the Senate in 2016). However, my ambivalence has been tempered by the reasonable certainty that Republican Majority Leader McConnell (or his successor) would not let the filibuster get in his way if the Republicans were in complete control. Having seen a number of Republican ploys blow up in their faces, McConnell probably saw this as a no-lose proposition. He and his fellow anti-democrats could continue to oppose every Obama appointment to the DC bench, complete with their absurd justifications for such opposition, and if Reid didn’t limit the filibuster, McConnell would have succeeded in thwarting Obama’s constitutional prerogatives to staff the DC Court of Appeals. (A huge win for Republicans.) In the event Reid did act against this blatant provocation, McConnell could use that as cover should he get reason to want to kill the filibuster entirely in the future. As I said, I don’t think McConnell would have needed that cover to end the filibuster when he was in a position to do so, but it will go a long way toward having the media report that the end of the filibuster is entirely the Democrats fault; after all, Reid did it first.
One of the GOP’s greatest strengths today is the cooperation of the media. They can count on the media to deliver stories like the one I heard yesterday that framed this as yet another “They’re equally at fault” stories that have become the mainstay of the lazy and corrupted MSM. In the future, it will be relatively easy for Republicans to get the media to either blame the Democrats or apportion equal blame for ending the filibuster altogether. And McConnell’s recent actions are what one might expect if that is the plan. I think it is.
MikeJ
@raven: I just woke up. West coast, ya know.
mouse tolliver
@Tone in DC: Was Bozelle equally offended when the Bush White House put a prostitute in the press Corp? Or what about that time W was palling around with a gay porn star?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/09/06/48995/-Bush-amp-The-Gay-Porn-Star-A-Portrait
liberal
@Belafon: huh? Part of governing is getting these positions filled in a reasonable amount of time.
Hal
This is the second time in as many months that Dems have called out Republicans on their bullshit. First with the shutdown and debt ceiling, and now with the filibuster. Are Democrats learning? I do have to say I love the responses that some how suggest these actions are unconstitutional considering the Senate, per the constitution, makes it’s own rules.
Larry Tate
If, of course, he wins re-election. Which is by no means clear.
feebog
@Bobby Thomson:
Rachel Maddow did a segment on this last night. There are currently 93 vacancies out of 873 district and circuit court positions. Obama has nominations for about 50 or so of the current vacancies. So yes, there is some work to be done over the next few months to get the remaining vacancies filled.
If Democrats hold the senate next year we can expect something close to 200 vacancies filled in the next three years.
Mnemosyne
@piratedan:
Yeah, I seriously doubt that the White House doesn’t have a shortlist of candidates for all of the vacancies. They may not have officially submitted the names yet, but I’m betting they have the list ready to start nominating folks quickly now that the roadblock has been removed.
Jeffro
Now here is how you differentiate yourself from the crowd on the Republican side, people:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gov-scott-walker-deference-should-be-given-to-executives-seeking-to-fill-appointments
“Hi, I’m Scott Walker and I am a) not fat, b) not Rick Perry, and c) held up by Koch puppet strings so fine, the Beltway media can’t even see them. Also I was the first (only?) Republican with even a shred of common sense with that whole nuclear option thingy. Walker 2016”
handsmile
@priscianus jr:
You may well be correct that Reid “snookered” McConnell in calling his bluff on filibuster reform. I think Reid also recognized that with McConnell currently besieged by a surprisingly robust primary challenger in Matt Bevin, he (McConnell) would become even more intractable throughout this congressional term.
But I am far less sanguine than you that “the likelihood of [Republicans] winning a majority in the senate any time soon is not great.”
The Neo-Confederates need to obtain six seats to claim a majority (currently the composition is 53D-45R-2I). Of the 35 Senate races to be contested next fall, Democrats are defending 21 of them. At this time, six Democratic-held Senate seats must be considered competitive/vulnerable: AK (Begich), AR (Pryor), LA (Landrieu), NC (Hagan), SD (Johnson), WV (Rockefeller). The retirements of Harkin (IA) and Baucus (MT) likely put those races in play as well. (Rockefeller and Harkin stepping down is particularly galling as these were safe Democratic seats).
Curiously/ironically, of the 14 GOP seats to be contested, it is McConnell’s that presents the best chance for a Democratic pick-up (if Bevin were to win the Kentucky GOP primary; a result I consider most unlikely). There is not a single other race with a realistic prospect of a Democratic gain.
So there is much to celebrate today (and the Village wailing and howling makes it so much sweeter) but tomorrow brings the stark recognition of just how titanic the battles will be in the 2014 midterm elections. GOTV is the true “nuclear option” for Democratic success.
Villago Delenda Est
@Debbie(aussie):
Well, wouldn’t they all be hanging out in watermelon patches then?
/rimshot
liberal
@TriassicSands:
[Emphasis added]
Yawn. I’ve been politically aware for decades now, and this has been a problem for as long as I can remember.
Of course, it’s become starker as the GOP has moved to the right.
fuckwit
@feebog: If. Big if. So now I see why the Rethugs have been digging in so hard– they’re stalling until they take back the Senate. The time is now to stop the obstruction. Obama has to haul ass and get those seats filled now, ASAP, before 2014. I hope he does it, pronto. Holding the Senate in 2014 does not look good, per handsmile’s analysis upthread.
@handsmile: And that explains why I’m getting near-daily begging-for-money emails from Warren and Franken: they’re trying to fundraise to build a war chest for Senate Democrats. I understand money is important, but I’m not exactly rolling in it right now.
fuckwit
@ericblair: I think it’s the Onion who has been doing a series recently parodying the idiotic way our media does foreign coverage, by writing stories about US domestic politics using the same kind of bullshit patronizing attitude that they apply to other countries. It was pretty hilarious.
Elizabelle
@handsmile:
I am hoping that Obamacare enrolling enough people to be successful, memories of the shutdown, seeing a two-tier economy, where the well-off are pulling away, and watching Republicans try to obstruct everything will impell better turnout among Democrats and disgusted independents in the 2014 midterms.
The GOP is the GOP. They will put up some boneheads, and they will say stuff that doesn’t play well with the non-crazies.
Further, voters like “winners”, and having the MSM have to report that the President’s nominations are being confirmed might give some courage.
liberal
@Belafon:
Huh? I don’t know about “pocket”, but in an absolute sense even someone like Breyer is pretty business-friendly.
The claim that it doesn’t matter who we elect because there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the parties is idiotic, but so is the claim that the Dem Party (at least at the leadership level) isn’t (as currently constituted) a pro-business, largely centrist (at best center-left) party.
liberal
@ericblair:
This is related to what is to me an interesting topic, namely the US-Israeli connection. People like Chomsky ultimately claim that Israel is (at the end of the day) just another minion of the US. People like Stephen Walt disagree and claim that Israel and the US don’t have completely overlapping interests, and that domestic lobbying by groups like AIPAC play a large role. (I’m in the Walt camp on this one.)
liberal
@piratedan:
Yeah, I heard that about Boxer. WTF is wrong with these people?
fuckwit
@TriassicSands:
It’s not cooperation, it’s ass-licking and cock-sucking. It’s money. The problem with a capitalist media is that it follows the money, and it does whatever the money boys tell them to do. The money boys are the Rethugs, the 1%, Wall Street, corporations. This is, I think, the whole key of how the Rethugs maintain their power: they and their donors literally own the media.
Fuck the media. If everyone smashes their fucking televisions into tiny litle peices, a great many of the problems in this country will vaporize instantly along with them.
catclub
Except for the title, this was surprisingly fair:
http://news.yahoo.com/filibuster-nuking-actually-lead-war-senate-100800686.html
I liked this bit: “If Republicans are angry, the Washington centrists are in mourning. “
Violet
@Jeffro: I just cannot see how Walker wins the nomination in 2016. He doesn’t come across as a likeable guy. What am I missing with him? People keep talking him up as a possible candidate, and I just can’t see it at all.
Patricia Kayden
“I only hope Reid kills the filibuster completely so we can hear more squawking from that doddering old fool.”
Agreed. Reid should have just killed it once and for all. Would have loved to have heard what threat McConnell and Grassley would have come up with then.
Villago Delenda Est
@liberal:
I tend to agree with Walt, too…if Israel were such a compliant client, you wouldn’t need AIPAC to constantly hector the Executive and Legislative branches to support the Likudnik scum’s efforts for a Final Solution to the Palestinian Question.
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet:
Christie’s cred was enhanced by his reelection earlier this month.
Walker still has to face that, and frankly there’s a great deal of buyer’s remorse.
fuckwit
@piratedan: Yep. On ACA (earlier thread) it was Baucus, Nelson, and Lieiberman shitting in the punch bowl. On filibuster reform, it was mostly Feinstein (not Boxer, AFAICT, she’s great). The “handshake deal” earlier in the session was a fantastic setup by Reid. He knew the Rethugs are lying bastards. He needed Feinstein to catch them blatantly being lying bastards– and lying to Feinstein’s actual face–, so that she’d wake up and realize that this is not politics as usual anymore.
I have seen this done very effectively to neutralize bullies in workplace politics. You have a bully being defended by someone in power who is either weak or egotistical or clueless or in denial or some combination of all of the above, and who refuses to believe that he or she is being fucked daily by the bully. The bully covers his or her tracks very well, kisses up extremely well, acts like a little angel when anyone with power is looking. Simple solution: you set up the bully so that he or she cannot resist seriously fucking over their defender, obviously, in a way that destroys their relationship. It’s not easy, it takes planning and patience, but it works like a charm. Once the bully’s defender(s) are either neutralized or turned against them, you can finally act to get rid of the bully.
Come to think of it, Obama’s technique for dealing with the Rethugs in general has followed this pattern: expose the Rethugs as bullies. Allow them to go full-on, in public, beyond-the-pale bully. Then the “moderates” and low-information people who hide, defend, and look the other way at the bully can’t do so any more, it destroys their support. He didn’t make this technique up, by the way, he learned it from Mohandas Gandhi by way of Dr. Martin Luther King.
Violet
@Villago Delenda Est: I just don’t get the Walker thing. He seems like a chinless one-hit wonder. I don’t see him having much impact nationally. Kind of like Tim Pawlenty who completely tanked in about five seconds.
fuckwit
@Patricia Kayden: Well, he’s pretty doddering, but I dunno if he’s all that old for the Senate. Isn’t Reid about the same age, aren’t they both boomers?
Hmm, now that I think of it, maybe we’re looking good next year.
I pray daily to the FSM for serious teabagger challengers to all the Rethugs running for Senate next year (this year, really, the campaigns have already started). The fate of the Senate will be decided in the Rethug primaries, well before the general. The teabaggers can save the Senate from what would otherwise be certain disaster, by putting up unelectable candidates. We’ll need to work hard and GOTV, and make sure our candidates are strong, but if we’re running against teabaggers next year then we could have a functional Senate now and for quite some time in the future.
More Todd Aiken’s and Sharron Angle’s, please!
Patricia Kayden
@Debbie(aussie): I was going to ask that same question. I’m Black (not AA) but I don’t get how voting in one month versus a different month makes a substantive difference and equates to voter suppression. Must read the article in the link (which I believe was to Rachel Maddow’s blog) to see if it sheds light on this question.
handsmile
@fuckwit:
Yeah, like you, my email box is crammed each day with solicitations. When it’s “from” a politician I deeply admire/support (e.g., Warren, Sanders), there’s always a slight prick of regret as I’m deleting it, but there’s only so much I can do (or wish to do at this moment) and there are a host of other causes deserving of my support (the guilt and regret, of course, is bottomless).
For a number of years, I’ve been involved in voter registration and GOTV efforts in New York City. I foresee no serious competition next year for my Congressional representatives, so I may well be taking the unprecedented step of traveling to a nearby state where my efforts could be put to good use.
@Elizabelle:
“The MSM have to report” on absolutely nothing other than what will discredit Democrats or promote Republicans. Bluntly, the American corporate media is and will continue to be our enemy.
During the Neo-Confederate-led government shutdown and debt ceiling brinksmanship, tepidly critical reporting by a few Villagers led some (here and on other center-left political blogs) to entertain the notion that the “emessem iz lernin'”.
The zeal and ferocity with which these courtiers have been proclaiming GOP talking points and outright fictions on the filibuster reform measures should bury such Panglossian hopes finally and forever.
(btw, i certainly don’t mean to suggest that you are not fully aware of all this. the msm that I’ve been reading/watching this morning has, um, provoked me a little more than usual.)
catclub
@Violet: “He seems like a chinless one-hit wonder.”
on the one hand, I agree. But he was elected and also Re-elected in the recall. Never mind that he had all the advantages in the recall – unlimited money, plus many people apparently decided recall was not the right solution, even though they disliked him.
But having won a recall election and stomped on unions, he has a great deal of credit in the wingnut domains.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m a big Barbara Boxer fan, but if she wasn’t as bad Feinstein and Leahy on the filibuster, she was usually cited as one of those opposed to reform, and IIRC was one of the last to flip.
gian
I expect the newly questioned legality of recess appointments plus the plan to confirm no one eventually allowed Harry Reid to get the votes
Ruckus
@fuckwit:
The geezers like Reid in the senate are before boomers, the silent generation. Can’t blame us for everything.
slippy
I have deeply relished the outrage and butthurt of the GOP over this. Moar pleez.
Violet
@catclub: I got the impression the recall was a lot about the proper use of the recall and not just recalling him. I’m not in WI, though, so I wasn’t that close to the action.
I still think he won’t play nationally. He’s of the Pawlenty mode–big dreams and no reality.
fidelio
@Napoleon: Take a look at this handy website: http://judicialnominations.org/
According to this site, there are 93 current and 19 future vacancies. There are 53 nominees in the pipeline, 17 of which has been passed out of committee and are awaiting a floor vote.
The most recent nominations I see in a quick scan were two placed earlier this month. If I’m reading this right, 14 were nominated in September 2013, 9 in August, 6 in July, 12 in June, and 6 in May, and three left hanging since 2012, plus Marquez from 2011.
Before the nominations can be made formally, the candidate, as I understand it, goes through a detailed background check and a series of interviews with the Justice Department. Not all candidates may be willing–the vetting and hearing process can be seen as anywhere from stressful to demeaning, and the pay may be less than what they’re used to making as a practicing attorney. So while there are some in the pipeline, going through the vetting process, we have no idea how many there may be, or who was approached and either found wanting or unwilling.
The US Senate website* also has a section on nominees. Two were withdrawn in this congressional term, Cadish (nominated for District Judge, District of Nevada) and Halligan (nominated for circuit judge, District of DC). I haven’t spent much time digging around there to see what I can find from the previous sessions, but I’m sure a determined soul could dig it up.
Judicial Nominations.org indicates that the nominee who’s waited the longest for a vote (Marquez, District of Arizona) has been left hanging since 2011.
I also note that quite a few districts which have been vacant for a long time, like some in Texas and Kentucky, have been places where the GOP is in control of the dance, at least at the Senate level. I have no idea whether this has influenced the slowness of the process of finding candidates for the jobs. Some have been vacant since the Bush II Administration, though.
*www.senate.gov
Bobby Thomson
@Napoleon: Just wanted to see where you would move the goal posts. So now if he ever delayed more than 90 days in having a nomination for a judicial post – including during the period before the Senate voted against filibustering judicial appointments – he has “fucked up,” even if the second coming of Bill Brennan gets appointed to every Court of Appeals opening before the next Inauguration. Got it.
rikyrah
nobody but a fool would believe that the VERY FIRST THING A GOP CONTROLLED SENATE wouldn’t do would be to get rid of the filibuster – no exceptions.
MomSense
@fuckwit:
Smartypants has written a series on this. She calls it “Conciliatory Rhetoric as Ruthless Strategy”.
Danack
@Cacti: That’s a bingo!
What does it benefit Mitch McConnell if they Republicans have the Presidency in 2016 but Mitch loses his seat in 2014?
Mitch is facing a real challenge from Alison Grimes with her being slightly ahead in the only recent polling done:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/01/kentucky-senate-poll-alison-lundergan-grimes-mitch-mcconnell-_n_3688273.html
Even worse for Mitch is his high unfavourable rating, which is over 50%.
Mitch would have a good chance of defeating her in the election, were it not for the fact that his tea party opponent is looking a reasonably serious threat.
http://blogs.rollcall.com/moneyline/bevin-reports-millions-in-cash-ready-for-campaign/
http://www.redstate.com/2013/08/22/not-good-internals-for-mitch-mcconnell-in-kentucky/
The Republican primary is on the May 20th – so Mitch can’t be seen to be ‘surrendering’ to the Democrats between now and then. Which may mean that the US is farked when it comes to the next shutdown in January.
Personally, I don’t see how Mitch can fight off strong candidates from both his left and right at the same time – but Bevin is the first threat, so Mitch will try to avoid doing anything that angers the Teahadists until that threat is removed.
Gravenstone
@Violet: Walker has an animal cunning that T-Paw totally lacked. That said, he also leaves a slime trail miles wide and deep. He’s had legal challenges dog him wherever he’s gone. And there is currently another “John Doe” investigation targetting several of his cronies at the state level (an earlier one focused on his Milwaukee County exec cronies). My hope is one or more of them decide to roll over on him for reduced sentences. And that will immediately end his aspirations of higher office.
And to expand on the comment about buyer’s remorse, the only reason Walker survived the recall attempt was that more people were voting against the recall process than were voting in support of Scotty-boy.
Waysel
@rikyrah: This.