Posted on 03/05/2019 5:09:10 AM PST by george76
Something remarkable happened to John Ryder on Thursday. He got a vote in the Senate.
Getting confirmed by the Senate for a part-time board position on the Tennessee Valley Authority—a minor corporate agency based in Knoxville that only holds four public sessions a year—didn’t use to be remarkable. It should have been even less so for Mr. Ryder, an accomplished Memphis lawyer whose nomination was uncontroversial. Yet Mr. Ryder waited 388 days for a vote—...
His nomination arrived in the Senate in early February 2018. By May he’d completed his confirmation hearing and received a unanimous committee vote. He then slammed into what is technically known as the Senate executive calendar—the means by which Democrats delay, obstruct and torment Trump administration nominees. His nomination expired at the end of the last Congress, requiring resubmission. Even at the last, Democrats were stringing out the process, refusing unanimous consent to a floor vote, requiring Republicans to file for cloture, which entails more delay. After all that, he was confirmed—by a voice vote with no audible dissent.
This is today’s Senate, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is embarking on a new campaign to highlight how badly Democrats have broken it. He’s talking about Mr. Ryder and the growing list of other stalled nominations as well as Mr. McConnell’s many (rejected) efforts to get Democrats to quit wasting the Senate’s time. Mr. McConnell has said all this before, but he has a new tool for focusing minds. Think of it as an obstruction death ray.
It’s a rule change introduced by Sens. James Lankford and Roy Blunt—a resolution that would reduce the time most nominees are subject to debate—from 30 hours to two. It’s ready for prime time, having recently passed the Rules Committee on a party-line vote.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Cocaine Mitch might complain, but he rarely gets in a hurry himself.
NICE GUYS FINISH LAST!
This has been the Senate for the last 10 years, if not longer.
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