The GOP needs to send Harry Reid a thank you note

As the new Congress convenes, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) demonstrates that for some reason being a democrat leader in Congress has the unfortunate prerequisite of being an idiot. A volcano of bombast picking up right where Harry Reid left, Schumer spit out his vision of the unending obstructionism he plans forr the GP and Donald Trump.

He promised to block any Trump nominee for the Supreme Court.

“It’s hard for me to imagine a nominee that Donald Trump would choose that would get Republican support that we could support,” Schumer said in an interview Tuesday night on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

Asked whether he’ll do his “best to hold the seat open” on the Supreme Court, Schumer responded, “Absolutely.”

For Schumer, it’s about retribution. The Republican-controlled Senate failed even to vote on President Obama’s last nomination to the highest court, Merrick Garland, who was put up for the job after the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Republicans instead made the Supreme Court a campaign issue, saying whoever was elected president would get to nominate Scalia’s replacement.

But the Schumer the New Yorker has an Achilles heel. Well, two, actually.

1) Reconciliation:Without reconciliation, Obamacare would not have become law at all. It’s true that the main Obamacare structure was passed by the Senate in December 2009 under normal rules for legislative consideration. That’s because Democrats at that time had 60 votes (including two independent senators who caucus with them). They didn’t need to resort to reconciliation to pass the bill as long as all 60 of their senators stuck together and supported passage, which they did.But then Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Senate race in January 2010; the Democrats lost their 60-vote supermajority and could no longer close off debate on legislation without the help of at least one Republican senator.At that point, the president and his allies had two choices. They could compromise with Republicans and bring back a bill to the Senate that could garner a large bipartisan majority. Or they could ignore the election results in Massachusetts and pull an unprecedented legislative maneuver, essentially switching from regular order to reconciliation at the eleventh hour, thereby bypassing any need for Republican support. As they had done at every other step in the process, the Democrats chose the partisan route. They created a separate bill, with scores and scores of legislative changes that essentially became the vehicle for a House-Senate conference on the legislation. That bill was designated a reconciliation bill. Then they passed the original Senate bill through the House on the explicit promise that it would be immediately amended by this highly unusual reconciliation bill, which then passed both the House and Senate a few days later, on an entirely party-line vote.

2) The nuclear option. Five years ago Harry Reid triggered the nuclear optionIn a shocking development Thursday evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) triggered a rarely used procedural option informally called the “nuclear option” to change the Senate rules.Reid and 50 members of his caucus voted to change Senate rules unilaterally to prevent Republicans from forcing votes on uncomfortable amendments after the chamber has voted to move to final passage of a bill.Reid’s coup passed by a vote of 51-48, leaving Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) fuming.The surprise move stunned Republicans, who did not expect Reid to bring heavy artillery to what had been a humdrum knife fight over amendments to China currency legislation.And he did it again in 2013:The Senate approved a historic rules change on Thursday by eliminating the use of the filibuster on all presidential nominees except those to the U.S. Supreme Court.Invoking the long-threatened “nuclear option” means that most of President Barack Obama’s judicial and executive branch nominees no longer need to clear a 60-vote threshold to reach the Senate floor and get an up-or-down vote.

Then he uttered some words which will come back to haunt democrats

more at link

Here's a direct link to the actual source of the info in the linked FR thread's article:

"Harry Reid's Parting Shot: Dems Will Nuke The Filibuster For SCOTUS"

It includes Schumer being questioned about his position on Reid's admission of this intention for the Senate after Reid leaves and Schumer takes over. Schumer refused to answer.

Since Reid made this proclamation after he endorsed Schumer to be his successor [ "Harry Reid endorses Chuck Schumer to lead Senate Democrats" ] it would have been beholden upon Schumer to disclaim, or at least distance himself from, this intention - if in fact he did not agree.

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