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Not even Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. could convince an in-cycle Senate Democrat from his home state to switch his vote and support embattled Department of Justice nominee Debo P. Adegbile. In the view of Democratic optimists, Biden had made a rare and impromptu appearance at the Capitol on Wednesday to cast a potential tie-breaking vote for Adegbile. But in reality, Biden served as the last-ditch salesman from the administration, futilely chatting up members such as Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., inside the Senate chamber. Coons was one of seven Democrats to join Republicans to block Adegbile from being the...

".............Reid’s tight control of the amendments process has become a point of contention in the debate over unemployment benefits, which he’d like to extend without providing funding for the program. After signaling that he would not allow any Republican amendments on a bill to temporarily extend the benefits, Reid appears to be backing down, however begrudgingly. “I am open to considering a reasonable number of relevant amendments to [the bill], if that’s what it takes to end Republican obstruction,” he said Monday on Twitter. Allowing a “reasonable number of relevant amendments” from the minority party has not always been considered...

[w/video] Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is dismayed that “every single Democrat senator goes in line and docilely agrees” with the Obama administration, claiming the president’s abuse of authority and ever-expanding powers should be challenged by lawmakers in both parties. Cruz spoke with Fox News’ Shannon Bream on Sunday about President Barack Obama’s increasing authority at the expense of Congress, particularly after Senate Republicans were blocked from filibustering judicial nominees through the “nuclear option.” Bream asked the senator if “stacking courts” is a presidential right and whether Republicans would be objecting if one of their own was in the White...

We’ve heard a lot about Harry Reid’s “Nuclear Option” to kill any power Senate Republicans might have thought they had. Now we face the threat of John Boehner using the House version of the “Nuclear Option” which he will likely sneak into law during a marathon Friday night/Saturday morning session as a last ditch weapon to keep the TEA party from gaining power and saving America from people like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (USCoC). The (USCoC) is determined to help Barack Obama and his Democrats destroy America. It has pledged to spend and spend some more to defeat TEA...

Senate Republicans will stage a more than 30-hour talkathon on the Senate floor to protest Democrats’ triggering of the "nuclear option" last month. The GOP protest, which could extend into the weekend, will throw a wrench in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) hopes of wrapping up legislative business for 2013 as soon as possible. Republicans will delay a final vote on Cornelia Pillard, one of President Obama’s picks for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, until about 1 a.m. Thursday. Then, Senate Republicans will hold the floor throughout the night, speaking out against Reid’s use of the nuclear option....

Democrats are ready to propel another one of President Barack Obama’s court picks through the Senate, now that outnumbered Republicans have less power to block the president’s nominees than they used to. The Democratic-led chamber planned Wednesday to consider Obama’s choice of Cornelia “Nina” Pillard to join the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. That debate was allowed after senators voted 56-42 on Tuesday to end GOP delays that had prevented a vote on her confirmation. Her approval was expected in the next day or so. …

Nuclear Option: The first spoil of Harry Reid's shredding of the Senate's historic filibuster rules has been confirmed to the D.C. Circuit. Patricia Millett is another radical activist masquerading as judge. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1990, now-Vice President Joseph Biden threw a fit after it was clear David Souter was going to be confirmed to the Supreme Court, warning the first Bush administration that no more "stealth" nominees would be getting through. Liberals threw an even bigger fit the next year when Clarence Thomas told Biden's committee he had no "personal opinion on the outcome in...

Liberals took the nuclear option in 2013 and there may be no return to civil discourse. I'm not talking about curtailing Senate filibusters, although they did that, too, but to the shameful escalation in political rhetoric. Tired of calling conservatives "extreme," "greedy" or "heartless," and having overplayed more creative invectives like "tea-bagger," liberal pundits and politicians took the ad hominem argument to a new low this year. During the Obamacare funding debate, Democrats called their rivals "anarchists," "arsonists," "extortionists," "jihadists," and "kidnappers," words normally associated with criminal activity. They had not quite hit bottom, however. A month later, former MSNBC...

Noting that “the nuclear option in the Senate, invoked with the full backing of the [Obama] administration, will further accelerate the regulatory avalanche,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue warned Tuesday that the American economy “will remain at a virtual standstill until we cut this thicket of regulations and streamline the permitting process” that is “costing jobs and growth.” … Noting that the cost of regulations already on the books is “roughly equal to the entire GDP of Canada,” Donohue told business executives and reporters in a speech at the Chamber’s Washington headquarters that the “stifling uncertainty” created by...

With the “nuclear option” in place, President Barack Obama needs only 51 votes to see his executive and judicial nominations brought to a vote. Liberals are seizing the opportunity, pushing Obama to nominate people with a left-of-center ideology, The Hill reports. Senate Democrats invoked the “nuclear option” on Nov. 21, changing the rule that 60 votes were needed to bring judicial or executive nominees to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote. With only 55 members on their side, Democrats had been unable to prevent Republican filibusters. …

For all the gnashing of teeth over the lack of comity and civility in Washington, the real problem is not etiquette but the breakdown of political norms, legislative and constitutional. Such as the one just spectacularly blown up in the Senate... The violence to political norms here consisted in how that change was executed. By brute force — a near party-line vote of 52 to 48 . This was a disgraceful violation of more than two centuries of precedent. If a bare majority can change the fundamental rules that govern an institution, then there are no rules. Senate rules today...

A federal appeals judge fears last week’s change in Senate filibuster rules will harm the judiciary because it will become easier for ideologues to win approval to the bench. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III expressed his views in a Washington Post op-ed. “Now, even those with the most rigid and absolute beliefs can spend a lifetime on the federal bench without a scintilla of bipartisan support,” Wilkinson writes. “Ideologues pose a unique risk for courts...Taking disagreements personally, believing oneself in sole and permanent possession of the truth can, in countless ways, delay dispositions and corrode the quality of justice..."

Republican Mark Obenshain is trailing Democrat Mark Herring for attorney general by 164 votes. Obenshain could win with as few as 71 — with not a single one cast by an ordinary Virginian. It is a nuclear option that takes the election out of the hands of the electorate. Obenshain could initiate what state law calls a “contest” in which the 140-member legislature decides the attorney generalship by a majority vote. That would be a minimum of 71. They shouldn’t be too difficult for Obenshain to round up. There are 87 Republican legislators. Many of them don’t like one bit...

It is time for the public to assess the condition of our republic as founded by our forefathers and framed within the US Constitution. Our fellow citizens have watched President Obama rule by decree through executive powers as he side stepped Congress. President Obama’s lawlessness shines as he ignores statutory federal laws at whim. Obama declared Obamacare the law of the land, but he unconstitutionally makes changes to the law to benefit his political agenda. The latest outrage is the highly political suspension of the 2015 enrollment window by one month, just past the 2014 elections. The US Constitution under...

(CNN) - Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh used an analogy about rape Friday to blast this week’s decision by the Senate's Democratic majority to change the chamber’s filibuster rules despite the unanimous opposition of minority Republicans. The so-called “nuclear option” will allow a bare majority of senators – as opposed to 60 - to approve most judicial and executive branch nominations. The Democratic caucus controls 55 of the chamber’s 100 seats. "Let's say, let's take 10 people in a room and they're a group. And the room is made up of six men and four women. The group...

“...I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires....” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Senate Rule XXII has “guided and protected the chamber since 1789.” It was last revised in 1975 following a rancorous debate that lasted months, not minutes, to require three-fifths of the entire Senate, or 60 votes, to end a filibuster.Oh sure, there has been some noisy posturing from both sides of the aisle from time to time about changing this. Butt until last week nobody was brave, or stupid enough, to actually launch the nuclear option. Primarily because,...

President Barack Obama said Thursday that he supports Senate Democrats’ dramatic action to change the chamber’s rules for presidential nominees, saying "enough is enough" when it comes to gridlock on Capitol Hill. "The vote today, I think, is an indication that a majority of senators believe as I believe that enough is enough," Obama said at the White House. "The American people’s business is far too important to keep falling prey day after day to Washington politics." Decrying the past "abuse of arcane procedural tactics" to block legislation and nominations, Obama conceded that neither party is blameless in creating gridlock...

As President Obama said, they got away with it. Harry Reid and the Democrat-controlled Senate got away with changing the Senate’s rules so that they can shove through anything they want without having to worry about Republicans filibustering against it. Just a few short years ago, then-Senator Obama spoke forcefully against doing what Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) just did. When Republicans talked about a similar rule change in 2005, Obama said (emphasis added): I urge my Republican colleagues not to go through with changing these rules. In the long run, it is not a good result for either party....

In the wake of Harry Reid using the nuclear option in the Senate, Republicans need to take the gloves off and go to war. Reid chose to upend over 200 years of precedent and rewrite the rules so that a simple majority can now approve judicial appointees. The way that the Democrats have been squawking, you would think that the Republicans had stifled every single one of the judicial appointments picked by Obama. The truth is that the vast majority of nominations are confirmed. The sticking point is that three appointments to the US Court of Appeals in the District...

Democrats and abortion activists are gleefully cheering a vote Senate Democrats took today to abolish the filibuster. The immediate effect of the vote is that Senate Democrats can quickly approve pro-abortion nominees President Barack Obama has sent forward for lower courts. But, are there unintended consequences? One unintended consequence is that future sessions of the Senate, controlled by Republicans, could eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees and a nominee who could be the deciding vote to overturn Roe v. Wade could be confirmed. The Supreme Court is generally thought to be divided 5-4 in favor of Roe at this...