Posted on 01/31/2017 10:37:47 PM PST by TBP
Fortunately, invoking the nuclear option isnt the only way a Senate majority can confirm a Supreme Court justice in the face of minority obstruction.
In a recent Heritage Foundation paper, Ed Corrigan and I detail how Senate rules empower a majority to overcome a filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee without having to invoke cloture or using the nuclear option.
Specifically, a majority may use Rule XIX (the two-speech rule) to shorten the amount of time members are able to filibuster. This rule prohibits any senator from giving more than two speeches on any one question during the same legislative day.
In the Senates rules, the terms legislative day and calendar day do not mean the same thing. A legislative day ends only when the Senate adjourns and therefore may last much longer than the 24 hours that define a calendar day. Indeed, one particularly long legislative day in 1980 lasted 162 calendar days, spanning a period from Jan. 3 until June 12.
Once a senator has given two speeches during the same legislative day, he or she may not speak again. The Senate votes when there are no members remaining on the floor who wish to and are allowed to speak. At that point, the support of a simple majority of the senators present and voting is sufficient for confirmation.
Using the two-speech rule to confirm President Trumps Supreme Court pick is straightforward.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
They'll do it, anyway. Once again, the Pubbies are boxing using Queensbury rules, and the 'Rats are eating our lunch using guerilla tactics. Man up, McConnell. Nuke the SOBs.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Two filibuster speeches apiece for 40+ Democrat senators? That could go for weeks!
The GOP never stops a Democrat SC nominee when the Dems are in power anyway, so I see no reason to not let it become the “new normal” to blast it through with the slim majority.
Dems will always get their flawed supreme court Nominees. Some republicans will always, error on the side of being fair while Dems never will.
Since Dems are the only ones who fillibuster Supreme court Nominees, I say go with the nuclear option.
With the nuclear option, Dems won’t gain anything with a dem president, and republicans will get a constitutional judge with a GOP president!
Bring on the Nuclear option, we conservatives have nothing to lose!
The only reason the rats never used the nuclear option for the SC is because it was never necessary. They could always find enough RINOs to agree to vote for any leftist activist radical they cared to nominate. Should Republicans ever attain conservative unity the rats would go nuclear in a heartbeat.
Flake is up for re-election in 2018, for the next 2 years, he has to be a good RINO.
The Dems should just convene now and decide which eight Rats Senators are going to vote for Gorsuch. The 2018 election will be here quick.
Thank you for posting the actual stats. We could make 2018 another good year. The Dems are doing their part to get Republicans elected.
The Filibuster is not in the Constitution, the need to "have 60 votes" to pass something through the U.S. Senate is never the real issue. They need 60 votes to end a potential filibuster, something exhaustion could accomplish in due course anyway.
No, the "filibuster" and its terminator "cloture" are not in the Constitution, to be sure, though the U.S. Senate certainly is, as is both Houses of Congress' right to setting its own Rules.
The only issue, unless like so many of our newsreaders one is hopelessly lost in the subterranean maze under Washington, DC is only among the Senate Rules, which can be changed either permanently - as when "cloture" was added to those Rules (by a Democrat-controlled Senate fifty years ago) - or even suspended temporarily, or for a specific purpose or group of purposes.
The Republican majority can't escape it's responsibility as the Majority, even if the Hydrogen bomb solution hidden under "going nuclear" above results in the Body of the States becoming a more democratically responsive assembly.
The smell of ass doth lie heavily upon the Chamber. Getting a presidential nominee confirmed should not require the kind of super majority needed to confirm treaties and amend the Constitution.
End the filibuster, by enduring a filibuster if necessary, and this ridiculousness is ended.
Democrat numbers in the Senate need to be driven down into the 30’s...permanently.
“We could make 2018 another good year. “
And because we have a relatively small number of Senate seats to “defend,” we should avail ourselves of the opportunity to RIF a few who are not worthy of retaining. In my view these people should be turned out:
Orrin Hatch (who will be 84 and will have “served” for 44 years in the Senate), Bob Corker, Dean Heller, Jeff Flake ( aptly named), and Ted Cruz (unless he somehow manages to redeem himself).
162 days is too long
. That was then, this is now, after Reid used the N.O. Also the Pubs number one issue to force people to the polls for the last 10 years has been getting good SCOTUS justices. That's why McConnell had to find enough backbone to hold the seat open. They have to deliver, there's no more excuses.
Absolut-ely correct.
“Republicans could
flash mob the floor of the Senate
at three in the morning”
They should “leak” that is what they are going to do. Then have one high visibility Senator make a move to go. They would all have to get up and run to the Senate Chambers just to see the Senator out for a morning jog. Followed by CNN, ABC, NBC, etc.
A few nights of that would be GOLD!
Scummee is coming off like a jerk...
The man was approved unanimously for his present judgeship.
Agree. Schumer is weak, panicked and not a fighter.
He is a cryer.
Collins will fall to his charming side. If that fails he will detail the job to Melania.
He has so much ammunition piled up, he will never run out, and he's not afraid to use it.
Look forward to eight years of winning.
Perhaps each one could speak longer, but I doubt it. Based on Pat Leahy’s sad performance today just speaking for 15 minutes, I doubt he could last an hour on the floor
**************
The average rat senator is in their mid 70’s ,, it’d be quick.
That is the Rat problem. If forced to actually filibuster, the will be unable to sustain the effort and will lose.
The first to collapse will end the effort in a loss. As his corpse is dragged from the Senate well, the bill can be passed.
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