Posted on 11/22/2013 3:08:19 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
....Reid clinched support for changing the rules at the weekly Tuesday Senate Democratic caucus lunch.
.....Reid, without mentioning the colleague’s name, told his caucus that one of its senior members who had long opposed filibuster reform, recently had a change of mind and privately urged him to trigger the controversial tactic.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) then rose before the room full of Democrats and identified herself as the recent convert.
“She got up right afterward and said, ‘He was talking about me,’” said a Democratic senator.....
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) did not know if he had the votes to trigger the nuclear option at the start of last week.
A Democratic leadership aide said he had not yet conducted a whip count and an outside liberal group that worked closely with him to advocate for filibuster reform said he was short of the 50 votes needed.
Reid never told his colleagues when he surpassed the mark. He simply called for a vote on the floor. That’s when Democrats knew they were about to enact one of the biggest Senate rules changes in decades.
“I just assumed he would never take it to the floor unless he had the votes. He’s too shrewd a vote counter. He really knows the Senate,” said a Democrat senator.
Several Republican senators tried to patch together a deal in the final hours to avoid the nuclear option.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a well-respected centrist, said Republicans could agree to confirm one of President Obama’s nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals if Democrats agreed to let the other two languish and dropped the threat of the nuclear option, according to a source familiar with the talks.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the Senate GOP’s principal dealmaker this Congress, urged Reid to consider it and other proposals instead of a rules change.
In the end, Reid said he would accept nothing less than confirmation of all three of Obama’s nominees to the D.C. Circuit, the second most powerful court in the nation, which has primary jurisdiction over the Affordable Care Act.
Outside groups had worked for months to persuade Reid to curb the minority party’s power to filibuster nominees. But in the end, Reid worked largely alone. His decision to trigger the nuclear option — so dubbed because it’s viewed as a dramatic escalation of partisan tactics — caught them by surprise.
Two members of the Fix the Senate Now coalition predicted earlier this week that Reid would not try to eliminate the power to filibuster executive and sub-Supreme Court judicial nominees before the end of the year.
Reid clinched support for changing the rules at the weekly Tuesday Senate Democratic caucus lunch.
He opened the meeting with a passionate speech announcing his decision to move ahead with a unilateral change of the filibuster rule. His plan was to overturn a ruling of the presiding chair with a simple majority vote, an aggressive tactic that several senior members of his caucus had long opposed.
After months of Republican obstruction, which culminated in the shutdown of the federal government in October, even longtime skeptics of a sudden rules change were finally ready to curb the minority party’s power to delay.
“Harry made an impassioned plea,” said a Democratic lawmaker, who described Reid’s remarks as similar to what he delivered on the Senate floor Thursday. “He said this is where we’re headed.”
Speaking on the floor shortly before the momentous vote, Reid declared Thursday: “The American people believe Congress is broken. The American people believe the Senate is broken. And I believe the American people are right.”
Reid, without mentioning the colleague’s name, told his caucus that one of its senior members who had long opposed filibuster reform, recently had a change of mind and privately urged him to trigger the controversial tactic.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) then rose before the room full of Democrats and identified herself as the recent convert.
“She got up right afterward and said, ‘He was talking about me,’” said a Democratic senator.
Feinstein said she was dismayed that the informal agreement Senate Republicans and Democrats struck on nominees during a rare joint meeting in the Old Senate Chamber in July had quickly disintegrated.
“I spent three hours in the Old Senate Chamber with both parties. And I listened to the discourse, which was amiable,” she told reporters that day. “And we left, and I think we all felt good. And it lasted maybe one week or two weeks.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) also delivered a pivotal speech at the meeting, urging colleagues in his gravely baritone to set aside their concerns and follow Reid.
“Patrick just said, ‘I think it’s time we do this, I’m going to follow the leader,’” said a lawmaker who attended the meeting.
The lawmaker said Reid galvanized support when he made it clear to his colleagues that he had made a decision and was going to move forward.
“I don’t think we did [have the votes],” said the source. “Until he really pushes and he says, ‘I’m going to do this,’ and goes to individual senators, people are on the fence.”
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, made a last-ditch effort to divert Reid by proposing that Democrats hold another meeting with Republicans in the Old Senate Chamber, said two sources familiar with the meeting.
Too many Democrats had lost their patience with repeated Republican filibusters and roundly dismissed Levin’s proposal.
“That would have just been more window dressing,” said a Democratic source.
Levin told The Hill Thursday he dies not remember making such a suggestion at the private meeting.
“But I think it would have been a good idea,” he said.
“Will packing the DC court also shield Holder from crimes (lying to Congress, Fast and Furious) and shield 0bama for his many crimes and forgeries?”
Only if the courts matter. Pack the house and senate with enough patriots, and the courts can be relegated to their traditional subservient roll as foppish advisors. There’s also the option of impeaching and removing fascist and communist judges. Indict, try and hang a few for sedition and treason will do wonders for our constitutional republic. That action will get the commies heading for the tall grass to hide. Those who remain visible can be given one-way tickets to the socialist paradise of North Korea.
I agree they have the power to limit the courts jurisdiction on issues,when have you ever seen them do that? Boner is really going to do that? Now that would be historic
.....and tyranny.
“Is there not a quorum rule, then? If so, every “R” should refuse to show his face during such votes, Wisconsin-Style.”
As I understand it, there is not a quorum rule that requires at least one vote from the opposing party, as with some committees and other legislative bodies.
Will their GOPe opponents even bring it up?
“”The American people believe the Senate is broken. And I believe the American people are right.””
You’re absolutely right, Harry. WE American people are right and we think you and your political party are the lowest form of humanity.
The problem is that now these Senators running for re-election have to go on the record for these appointments. No appt will shine. But the scandalous ones will dog them.
This was done to get judges appointed who will stop all these court cases working their way through the courts that could kill Obamacare,especially the ones that say that subsidies cannot be given in states that the federal government set up the exchanges. No one read the bill and it says the subsidies can only be given in exchanges that the state’s set up,so the IRS just decided on their own to say that all states with exchanges can pay subsidies,because that was the intent of the law,even though the law explicitly says the opposite,there are I believe at least 4 cases in court challenging this and Obama will now be able to stack the courts to take care of that little problem.
Oh well as they say elections have consequences
“”There’s also the option of impeaching and removing fascist and communist judges.””
Not just judges. How do we get another House committee investigation on Un-American activities? The below fits every stinking democrat in power today including the administration. It’s obvious the House Judiciary Committee isn’t up to weeding these traitors out so let’s go back to the Un-American Activities committee. Why is it acceptable now in our country to ignore the aim of these people? No one investigated by HUAC did as much damage to the country as these people are doing now.
“”The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. It was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having Communist ties. In 1969, the House changed the committee’s name to “House Committee on Internal Security”. When the House abolished the committee in 1975,[1] its functions were transferred to the House Judiciary Committee””
they don’t call it the stupid party for no reason.
this seems more about protecting the country club from conservatives.
The rinos no longer need conservatives to break a filibuster.
This is all about the rino agenda.
notice mccain is MIA.
graham is MIA.
all the other rinos are MIA.
Pack the courts? Fine, we'll just defund every court that the Senate packs - we've got to stop playing nice guy, like showing up to a gunfight with.....Daisies - hell, Daisy Cutters!
Heck, there's already one grenade rolling around on the floor - may as well toss one of your own....
The money quote:
“In the end, Reid said he would accept nothing less than confirmation of all three of Obama’s nominees to the D.C. Circuit, the second most powerful court in the nation, which has primary jurisdiction over the Affordable Care Act.”
So, what’s coming down the pipe that they want to ram those nominees in?
Even if they lose their majority in the Senate, the new rules won't hurt them unless there is a future situation where the President is a Republican and the Republicans have a thin majority in the Senate.
Someone on FNC pointted out this morning that the majority of the Senate Democrats have never been in the minority so they don't know what it is like.
This is their answer to fixing Obamacare, dictatorship and tonshut us up in the judges we can appeal to.
Thus the gays will have their government protected private thoughts while we will be attacked and required to reveal allbthoughts and donors to the genocidal inquisition.
Repeal. They will prevent repeal at any cost.
bkmk
Anyone can just go to the SCOTUS in that case. My guess is that there’s more to it.
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