McConnell couldn’t have done much. They want to control that DC Circuit no matter what.
The risk is, now that the ice is broken, the “51 vote to change rules” concept can be used by anyone to avoid 60 vote filibuster limits on anything.
Using 51 votes to change Senate rules was the real slippery slope vote, not so much the substance of reducing the non-Supreme Court judicial and executive appointment vote requirements. We just need to take over in 2014 and get our own 51 votes.
Unfortunately, when the GOP controls the Senate (God willing in Jan 2015), we won’t have the cajones to expand it.
Yeah, I am having a hard time seeing this for a crisis. Half the US Treasury’s senior staff positions were never filled in the 8 years of the Bush administration because of Harry Reid’s blockades. The filibustering of nominees is a fairly pernicious practice that has been used against Republicans and conservatives probably more than against liberals.