Posted on 01/04/2017 4:16:05 PM PST by Jim Robinson
Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he is confident that he has laid the groundwork for Democrats to nuke the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees if they win back the Senate in November.
Envisioning Hillary Clinton in the White House and Democrats controlling the Senate, Reid warned that if a Senate Republican minority block her Supreme Court nominee, he is confident the party wont hesitate to change the filibuster rules again.
Such a move would be an extension of what Reid did in 2013 when he was still majority leader, eliminating filibusters (with a simple majority vote) on the Presidents nominees. There was only one exception: the Supreme Court. As it stands now, Democrats still need 60 votes to move forward with a Supreme Court nominee.
Reid said, however, that could change.
I really do believe that I have set the Senate so when I leave, were going to be able to get judges done with a majority. It takes only a simple majority anymore. And, its clear to me that if the Republicans try to filibuster another circuit court judge, but especially a Supreme Court justice, Ive told em how and Ive done it, not just talking about it. I did it in changing the rules of the Senate. Itll have to be done again, Reid told TPM in a wide-ranging interview about his time in the Senate and his legacy.
(Excerpt) Read more at legalinsurrection.com ...
The question, Jim, is do the pubbies have the stones to use it?
Trump has the stones to use it!!!!
Must be a real disappoint for old Harry
Reid needs to have his T’s crossed and his I’s dotted.
Maybe Trump will give McConnell a set because up until now he’s been a eunuch.
I hope Reid is using his exercise machine again...
5.56mm
Are you really this stupid? What goes around is coming around to bite you in the ass. Thanks for doubling down, you miserable friggin socialist. Go away and expire, er, retire.
Sounds like a great idea. Nuclear option for judges. Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.
Not about “stones” with the GOP-e. They want what the Dems want, even if the last election was the greatest statement thus far by the electorate that we absolutely reject it.
Great find, JimRob!
So the Rats were going to eliminate the supermajority for the SCOTUS?
Well, lets help them. Then watch the Rat hypocrites and the MSM scream bloody murder!
With Shumer’s demand that Trump abandon the republicans and join with him and the Dims, Trump and McConnell ought to declare that the Nuclear Option is in effect as of mid-night tonight for all bills and nominees.
Chuckie Schumer is like a three year old whiner having a tantrum as was Dingy Harry, it’s in the RATS blood.
Chuckie still hasn’t come to the realization that’s what is responsible for President-elect Trumps win, people are fed up!
I expect “courageous” McCain, Graham and Collins to oppose using the nuclear option to again “save the Senate.” Remember when the nuclear option was being considered in 2005 when Democrats were blocking Bush’s conservative judicial nominees, the nuclear option was blocked by these three plus 4 other RINOs that are no longer in the Senate. Along with 7 Democrats, they formed the infamous Gang of 14 to block the nuclear option and work out a compromise.
Hope that I am wrong.
I think keeping it at 60 was best for the country so that some measure of bipartisanship was needed to confirm court appointees. But Reid crossed that Rubicon, and as the article states, he would have undoubtedly eliminated the filibuster even for Supreme Court nominees if they were back in power. The Republicans need to approve Scalia’s replacement (and soon Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s and Anthony Kennedy’s) by simple majority and be done with it.
The Dems love to talk about out of the mainstream as a description of non-Democrat judicial nominees. But having eliminated the filibuster for every appointment short of SCOTUS nominees, they face the unprecedented situation where the POTUS-elect has published a list (two, actually) of people he would consider appointing to SCOTUS - and subsequently won the presidential election. In that context the term out of the mainstream is a non sequitur.Senator McConnell should abolish the filibuster for nominees already vetted by the presidential election. If Trump nominates someone on the list, filibustering his confirmation vote would not be proper. The only possible justification for allowing it would be to smoke out the Democrat senators who are up for reelection in 18. There are 25 of them, ten of whom hail from states Trump won after publishing his list.
i think we need to play this everytime before we nuke the g-d democrats.
Reid, I’m sorry, but Madam Crimewave and the American Light Communist Party (fka Dems) lost. Now, STFU, Harry...
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