Posted on 10/11/2017 1:56:19 PM PDT by cotton1706
The GOP leader may not personally be a fan of blue slips, but hes not getting rid of them, says his spokesman.
WASHINGTON ― Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will continue to honor the blue slip rule ― an arcane but hugely consequential Senate tradition that lets lawmakers block a presidents judicial nominees from their home states ― even though a news article suggested he would get rid of it, his spokesman said.
The Weekly Standard reported Wednesday that McConnell said in an interview that Democrats would no longer be allowed to use the rule to deny some of President Donald Trumps judicial nominees a committee hearing or a vote.
The Senate Judiciary Committee currently requires both home-state senators of a judicial nominee to turn in a blue slip ― literally, a blue piece of paper ― to signal support for moving forward with the nominee. Without blue slips from both senators, the nominee wont get a hearing and the nomination is effectively dead. Blue slips amount to giving a single senator veto power over a presidents court pick.
In his interview, McConnell said that, from now on, Republicans will treat a blue slip as simply notification of how youre going to vote, not as an opportunity to blackball.
The articles author, Fred Barnes, wrote that that means the blue slip rule now wont be honored at all. But McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said McConnell was talking about his own view on blue slips, and was not saying that Republicans wont uphold the rule anymore.
(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...
Oh, he is a fan.
McConnell wants status quo jurists to protect his gravy train. He calls it conservative. I call it protecting the Swamp. I'll bet he is scared of Gorsuch.
Your assumption there are no commonality between Trump and McConnell is a fallacious joke
I didn't say that, I meant that McConnell is a crooked, spiteful, vindictive, insecure coward that hates Trump, but now that you say it, I can't think of one thing Trump and McConnell have in common.
thought it was good news when I heard it earlier. Looks like you have to double and triple check with these cowards. Get rid of this guy!
So why doesn’t President Trump just nominate Judges from solid Red States that he carried?, there have to be several states that have two Republican Senators, and some more than qualified nominees.
It seems like this would be a way to stick a finger in the dems eye, and at the same time nominate some conservative judges.
Use the rules against them for a change.
How often did Republican Senators block Dem appointments by using the blue slip??? IIRC, Reid changed the Senate rules to allow judicial appointments (except the SCOTUS) to move forward with only a simple majority. Did ANY Pubbies stand up to Reid and block any judges??? This blue slip business needs to end. ONE SENATOR CAN BLOCK ANY JUDGE ONLY FOR HAVING A DIFFERENT POLITICAL POINT OF VIEW. That is waaaay too much power for any Senator. Period.
Of course he (or more properly, it) is.
He is pure vermin wrapped up in a skunk outfit, perfumed in poop.
Reagan was right about “bold colors” vs “pale pastels” Everything these guys do is murky, garbled, unclear. They’re such horrible
Communicators. McConnell could have gotten some much needed street cred. Now, even if they do away with the slips, the PR benefit is drowned in lack of clarity. Such dopes
Hardly surprising. Mitch and the Repub leadership are uniparty. Just like all the democrats.
Uniparty does what uniparty does.
Not surprising at all.
I think it’s a stupid process. But let’s not blame McConnel. This has been in place for a long time. Let’s blame Leaders from both parties going back decades. This is a Senate issue, not a party issue.
Personally I say vote them all out. Reps. Dems. And even the couple of half assed independents. Clean the slate and start over.
Jesus, I’m so tired of these blue-ball Republicans.
For the first time ever I think I’ll donate in whatever minute quantities as possible to defeat these SOBs.
Senate rules. Imagine if you hired people to work for you and after they started they began to make their own set of work rules. And further imagine that their work rules resulted in rendering them almost completely unproductive. How long would they remain in your employ? Unfortunately you dont have to imagine such a scenario since we have a real life example: the U.S. Senate.
Absolute traitor.
Mitch McConnell is the #1 roadblock to getting Trumps agenda pushed through congress.
What is your address, so that we can send them directly over to you? What are we supposed to do when they rape, rob, and murder you, and steal your skirt and pretty pink bag? LOL
God I’m so tired of these pussy Republicans bending over for Democrats time after time.
They ... just ... don’t ... learn.
Miotch is O’Bammie’s biotch! ...
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