Free Republic

Rich Lowry: Throughout its history, the United States Senate has experienced disgraceful filibusters (Strom Thurmond against the 1957 Civil Rights Act), entertaining filibusters (Huey Long in 1935 reciting a fried-oyster recipe) and symbolic filibusters (Rand Paul making a point about drone strikes in 2013). But the filibuster that Chuck Schumer is about to undertake against Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court is perhaps the institution’s dumbest. Hard to argue with that, but in the interest of progressive politics there is nothing so dumb that the Democrats won’t do it. It won’t block Gorsuch, won’t establish any important jurisprudential...

“I would like to meet that idiot, I’d like to meet the numskull that would say that,” he told reporters. “That after 200 years, at least 100 years of this tradition, where the Senate has functioned pretty well, they think it would be a good idea to blow it up.” McCain said changing the rules would be a “body blow to the institution,” adding he thinks it puts them on a slippery slope. .. McCain said he’s had numerous conversations with members on both sides of the aisle in an attempt to strike an agreement on the matter.

Sen. Claire McCaskill At least 41 Democratic senators have publicly committed to filibuster President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, leading to a probable showdown with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.The filibuster might seem like payback for Democrats after Republicans refused to consider the nomination of then-President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, for 293 days starting last year. Unlike Republicans last year, however, Democrats don’t have all that much power. They aren’t in the majority — and McConnell has strongly hinted that he could seek to eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court picks if Gorsuch can’t get 60...

Check the polls for the last 10 years (at least): no single profession, nor any other group of people in America, is more universally despised than the US Congress and its members (although, thanks largely to their control over reelection variables, their constituents usually reelect almost all of them.) Their “approval” rating as a group is often in the teens and, today, is actually at one of its high-water marks – up to the low 20’s in some polls!

Confused by what's going on in the Senate for Judge Gorsuch's Supreme Court confirmation? We hear ya. So we'll let Jimmy Stewart and Mufasa explain...

U.S. Sen. John McCain on Monday announced that he will support an upcoming effort by his fellow Republicans to win Senate confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court by changing the chamber's rules in order to overcome Democratic opposition. McCain, in remarks to reporters, said he had "no choice" but to go along with a change in rules ending a tradition of 60 votes in the 100-member Senate needed to advance Supreme Court nominees to a final vote. He said he would support the rule change "because we need to confirm Gorsuch." In the past, McCain has strongly...

Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, won approval Monday on a party-line vote from the Senate Judiciary Committee, setting the stage for a filibuster showdown on the Senate floor later this week. At the same meeting, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware announced he would provide the crucial 41st vote need to support the threatened Democratic-led filibuster of Gorsuch. The committee's 11 Republicans all endorsed Gorsuch as a well-qualified conservative judge whose record "falls well within the mainstream," as committee chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) put it. All nine Democrats opposed Gorsuch. They faulted the Republican nominee for refusing...

All I can hear is Bill Lumbergh’s voice: “Yeeaahhh, I’m gonna have to say no.” Needless to say, no one to the right of David Souter would survive a vetting process in which Democrats had veto power over a Gorsuch replacement. Besides, various liberal legal luminaries like Neal Katyal and Kathleen Sullivan have already weighed in on whom Trump should appoint to the Supreme Court. They named Neil Gorsuch. There’s your compromise.I’m surprised this no-hoper of an idea is Schumer’s best shot at a “reasonable” solution to the Gorsuch standoff. He could have floated a new “Gang of 14”...

Join a People’s Filibuster in Your City Americans are coming together to join People’s Filibuster events across the country. All times are in the morning, shown in the local time zone. Find an event in your local city below or host your own.

Watch it, share it, never let them forget. A few short years ago, Republicans were “political terrorists.” They were also “showboaters,” “hostage takers,” and were “refusing” to accept the results of the last presidential election. Those were among the claims made by a wide variety of Democrats - all of whom were accusing the filibustering GOP of the worst sorts of selfish, hyper-partisan, passive aggressive behavior.

House Republicans immolated themselves over health care last week, and now Democrats are hoping the Senate GOP will perform its own kamikaze turn over Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. If Republicans blink and tolerate Democratic filibusters of High Court nominees, they should hand over their majority to the Democrats now. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s strategy is transparent: Stage-manage an unprecedented filibuster against Judge Gorsuch, and then portray Republicans as radicals if they change Senate rules to break it. The gambit is to coax at least three of the 52 GOP Senators to cut a deal with Democrats that hands the...

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 won't 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...

Democrats planning a likely futile gesture to send a message to Trump Desperate to placate their increasingly rabid far left-wing base, ethically-flexible Senate Democrats are planning to launch a filibuster against a Supreme Court nominee for the first time in a half-century and only the second time in American history. Their insistence on this course of action could very well lead to the abolition of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations.

The Senate’s most senior Democrat says he probably won’t join his party’s effort to filibuster Judge Neil Gorsuch, in the first major indication that Republicans may not have to resort to the so-called “nuclear option” to fill the empty Supreme Court seat. Senator Patrick Leahy, Vermont Democrat, said he’ll vote against Judge Gorsuch’s nomination, but doesn’t think a filibuster is the right path. “I am not inclined to filibuster, even though I’m not inclined to vote for him,” Leahy told the Vermont Digger on Sunday.

Senate Republicans had to know there would be a price for their unprecedented theft of President Barack Obama’s final Supreme Court pick last year. On Thursday, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, named it: Either find 60 votes to overcome a filibuster of President Trump’s extremely conservative nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, or find another, more moderate choice. The last four Supreme Court nominees — two from Mr. Obama and two from President George W. Bush — all met the 60-vote threshold, Mr. Schumer said, so it was fair to require the same of Judge Gorsuch.

Supreme Court: After Judge Neil Gorsuch spent 20 hours demonstrating that he is abundantly qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice, Democrats announced plans to filibuster his nomination. Good luck with that. By all accounts, Gorsuch put in a stellar performance in his confirmation hearing. Even the New York Times conceded that "if Democrats harbored any hope of raising doubts about Judge Gorsuch among Republicans, they came nowhere close." But as soon as the hearing ended, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that he was going to filibuster the nomination anyway. Gorsuch, Schumer said, "was groomed by the Federalist Society...

Democrats may be ready to throw in the towel in opposing the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to be associate justice of the Supreme Court.  According to Politico, several sources are reporting that a group of Democrat senators may be willing to allow the Gorsuch confirmation to go through on the Senate floor in exchange for a pledge from Republicans not to get rid of the filibuster.  Their thinking is that if President Trump has another opportunity to name a Supreme Court justice, they want the option of blocking any nominee. Another vacancy would be far more consequential, as it...

As the Senate Judiciary Committee was hearing from witnesses for and against Judge Neil Gorsuch, his Supreme Court nomination was delivered a critical blow: Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he would join with other Democrats in filibustering Gorsuch — a move that would require at least 60 senators to vote to end debate on the nomination.

We are told that without 60 votes in the Senate, we cannot pass new health care legislation, so the only practical course is to accept the limited changes to Obamacare possible through “reconciliation.” Then there is the father of all lies. We are told not to worry about how bad this bill is, there will be phase 2, and after that, phase 3 – and then President Trump will keep his promises on health care. .....SNIP.... It’s a bigger problem than health care reform. If Republicans can’t get a single piece of any sort of legislation passed without 60 votes,...

Good news, they’re listening to you.  No other approach to repealing ObamaCare is possible.  It’s not ideological, it is simply reality.  The backstory on our prior explanations are HERE and expanded HERE. After listening to conservative groups at a White House meeting yesterday, it became obvious to POTUS  those group leaders/members did not understand WHY no other approach to repeal is possible.   POTUS asked Speaker Ryan to put this together and deliver it today: WOW: Paul Ryan's American Health Care Act (Obamacare Replacement) FULL PowerPoint Presentation Most of you already know this outline because you’ve understood the bigger picture.  Hopefully this message will reach the...