[Rumierules]

Why vote on cloture instead of just voting on the nominee?

[MamaLucci]

Senate rules.

[El Gato]

Why vote on cloture instead of just voting on the nominee?

Because cloture is the question on the table, left over from last night. They could have done it by unanimous consent, but they do need a vote of some sort to be able to move on to the vote to confirm.

[foreshadowed at waco]

I think that the agreement last night by the 14 Senators was that they would all side with the Republicans for a 'yes' vote on cloture for the 3 nominees--Owens, Brown, and the guy (???)--60 votes for cloture means an end to debate and a vote...if the Republicans did not have the 60 votes for cloture, then they would have invoked the Constitutional Option (Nuclear Option) to end the debate since it only takes 51 votes to change the rules...no one took the filibuster or the option of eliminating the filibuster off the table...they agreed to vote for cloture on the 3 justices (thus delaying the Nuclear option for a future date, if necessary)...

my hope is that the Republicans get the 3 justices and Bolton past the Senate and then take off the gloves...rememeber Bolton's negatives are that he is 'too aggressive'--not really an 'extraordinary' enough reason to pull a filibuster (in effect the 7 Democrats have agreed not to stop the Bolton nomination)...take what you can get first and be ready to hang tough to take the rest at a later date...not such a bad deal IMHO.