GOP will turn ‘nuclear option’ to its advantage 2015 Senate plan to co-opt Obama strategy

The Washington Times ^ | November 19, 2014 | S.A. Miller

[Gorilla44]

Under pressure from a large faction of rank-and-file members, Senate Republican leaders are warming to the idea of keeping the rule change known as the “nuclear option” that Democrats imposed to end filibusters of nominations.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who will become majority leader in January, is leaving the decision to the will of his members, and at least half of them currently oppose reversing course, said GOP aides close to the discussions.

The leadership team this week began signaling that the new rule, which reduced the number of votes needed to cut off confirmation filibusters from 60 to 51, is likely here to stay.

[Gorilla44]

Payback is a -----.

[Zenjitsuman]

What is good for the Goose is good for the Gander.

Harry has only himself to blame. He turned the republican senators into legislative unices and Dems deserve the same and then some.

[Rome2000]

McConnell said he would change the rule to apply to legislation as well, not just nominations.

Guess he lied.

[fortheDeclaration]

This GOP Senate is going to be more confrontational then any other.

Reid, with his bully boy tactics, has poisoned the well and the Republicans aren't going to forget it!

Senators take great pride in their position and Reid humiliated them.

[Timber Rattler]

It’s time to get even, Harry.

[CapnJack]

Reid will just change the rules back before he is gone in January.
Why does everyone think the Repubs will be able to use this rule next year?

[Ronin]

This is a no-brainer. Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.

[nathanbedford]

I'm not so sure that this is to our advantage.

As I understand it, the nuclear option applies only to ending filibusters against nominees, it does not apply to legislation in general. The Democrats are disciplined and united, probably because of oligarchical control of their monies, far more than are Republicans who are at this juncture in the midst of a civil war between the base and the elitists, between conservatives and Rinos.

Republicans are prone, as history has shown respecting approving Democrat nominees, to divide against themselves and slavishly approved Democrat nominees. With the likes of Lindsay Graham, John McCain, the women from Maine, New Hampshire, and Alaska, there is a core of traitors.

So the danger is that a Democrat president can cobble together enough Rino Republicans to join with his Democrat minority to get approval. But as Ted Cruz pursues his plan to stop all nondefense related nominees by Obama so long as Obama pushes his tyrannical amnesty plan, it would be in our interest as conservatives for his opposition, manifested if necessary as a filibuster, to be unbreakable.

Legislation in general, however, is a different matter.

[Gaffer]

And the VERY FIRST confirmation on which it should be used is Holder’s new replacement. Squash her nomination like a stinkbug. DOJ doesn’t need another rabid racist.

[Gaffer]

I think it is a very distinct advantage if it keeps Obama from getting his nominees approved, frankly.

Democrats have always used historical Senate rules against the underdog and it is time Republicans give what they got.

Further, while there is that core of traitors you mentioned, we have the 2016 election coming up and at lease one of the Senators there is up for re-election.

Even if quashing nominees is only temporary, say as a means to stop or slow Obama on his royal proclamations (e.g., Amnesty), it will serve a purpose and help to reconfirm who the “mavericks” are.

[freeangel]

I can just relish in the idea of hearing dirty harry squeal.

[Nervous Tick]

>> And the VERY FIRST confirmation on which it should be used is Holder’s new replacement. Squash her nomination like a stinkbug.

... and the same brutal treatment for every subsequent nominee that Obola advances. I don’t think it would kill us to go two years without an attorney general.

[Principled]

Reid will just change the rules back before he is gone in January.

LOL I'd like to see that.

While Dems had control, the Senate was "broken" hence the rule to allow the senate to function - but as Rs take control, such a "fix" is no longer needed b/c the senate will no longer be broken? LOL

No, I think enough R senators are angry enough at how they're treated that in January it will be like it is now - even if they have to change it back after Harry reverts to old rules.

[Vaquero]

“Sauce for the goose Mr. Saavik, the odds will be even...”

[Ken522]

Congress (Senate) hasn't passed a budget in how many years????

[Gaffer]

Me either. I remember Clarence Thomas and John Tower.

[Principled]

I think it possible that the rule expand to include legislation. That will matter a great deal in the lame duck and would be quite helpful to Rs. I hope they change the legislation filibuster. It would mean 0bama would have to accept or veto a bazillion R bills. No more protection from the Senate.

But the nuclear nominations filibuster rule that Harry did could hurt Rs in the lame duck so I hope they change it back. If 0bama can get 51, it's done. And with the squishy Rs we have, he could. But he could not get 60. After January, Mitch _could_ stop them all before that point ... but if he doesn't, a 51 majority could confirm for 0bama.

[SoFloFreeper]

How does this help? It means Dems only have to pick off fewer Republicans to get Obama’s idiots a vote.

Am I missing something?

[orinoco]

McConnell says he is concerned that the Democrats would vote for the nuclear option should they win back the majority. However, the Senate can modify the rule such that it would now take 60 votes to re-etablish the nuclear option. The flaw originally was that it only took a simple majority vote of 51 to change the 60 vote rule.
I think McConnell also thinks the voters are stupid.

[nathanbedford]

The Republic in the lame-duck is protected against the ravages of Obama, as it has been since the 2010 election, by the House of Representatives.

During the lame-duck, as to nominations, Obama would be in position to stuff many obnoxious officeholders into the bureaucracy and various offices. Certainly the office of the Attorney General comes to mind.

But after the new Senate comes in, the question is what can we as conservatives do to force the Rinos to do in opposition to Barack Obama. Impeachment, evidently, has been taken off the table without any effort whatsoever to educate the American people as to its necessity and value. McConnell and Boehner have explicitly said they will not shut down the government which is another way of saying they will not employ the power of the purse to stop Obama.

Perhaps they will, in effect, pass a series of budget authorizations funding every department except homeland security which evidently enforces immigration law and when that matter comes up they will attach a rider prohibiting any funds to be used for amnesty. To believe that means we have to trust Boehner and McConnell.

Meanwhile, we are left with Ted Cruz acting to stop all of Obama's nominees as a way of crippling the administration so long as Obama persists in his illegal diktat concerning amnesty. So long as Cruz might have to do that by filibuster because the establishment combines with the Democrats against him, the number of votes needed to quash a filibuster should be raised to two thirds or even three quarters.