Posted on 12/04/2014 1:11:24 PM PST by cotton1706
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (Miss.) says Senate Republicans should reverse the so-called nuclear option, which Democrats used to reduce the threshold for confirming executive and judicial branch nominees to a simple majority vote.
Lott said incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should reverse the change of precedent Senate Democrats made last year to defang GOP filibusters against President Obama’s nominees.
Since then, Obama has stocked the federal courts, including the pivotal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, with his picks. Republicans are split over whether they should keep the precedent in place now that they are poised to take control of the chamber. They will meet on Dec. 9 to discuss their options.
Lott said restoring the minority party’s power to filibuster nominees could help improve the Senate’s bilious atmosphere.
“I would hope that they would reverse the nuclear option. That would be a sign that we’re not going to have things that way,” he said at a breakfast sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor. “I think it would help get them off on the right foot.”
Lott said he told McConnell and his staff “that I hope they would do that.”
Under regular order, a rules change requires 67 votes, but outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) circumvented the high hurdle by overturning the ruling of the Senate parliamentarian with a party-line, majority vote.
The tactic is known as the nuclear option because it is seen as antithetical to the Senate’s traditions of operating through consent. Critics say the move severely damaged the fabric of the upper chamber.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Idiots. (spit)
McConnell should announce that he’ll revert to the centuries-old traditional policy once all the Democrats who’ve benefited from the ‘nuclear option’ have left the Senate.
If Democrats want the old procedures back, all they have to do is convince Reid, Shumer, Durbin and the rest of that criminal enterprise to resign or retire.
Trent Lott’s in a street fight where the bad guys are using knives and he’s trying to use Queensberry rules.
“If the current rules are in place, the liberal judicial and administrative nominations will pass with a coalition of all dems and a few RINO’s “
False.
Nominations have to go through the Judiciary Committee.
They’ll be stopped there- at least the worst will.
“Trent Lott seems to have come out of the woodwork with lots of bad (and anti-conservative) advice for Mitch McConnell.”
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I think a lot of FReepers do not have the best understanding of this issue. Even Trent Lott, just as a broken clock, can be right occasionally by happenstance.
As long as the anti-American Obama is president, the 60 vote closure rule should be kept - at least for judicial nominees votes.
Trent is lucky his ass isn’t in jail right now. The best thing he can do is shut the hell up.
Is this the Power Sharing with Democrats Trent Lott ?
Why is Trent Lott still speaking? Better The Hammer. We won’t hear from him though because he’s actually a man.
Trent Lott is still alive, apparently.
TL is a neighbor to Haley Barbour. ‘Nuff said....
So let me get this straight. We revert to the old rules. In the interim, of course, Obama packed the Courts.
Then, (barring a Romney II/Jeb Bush/ChristieCrem nomination) we win the White Hut in 2016. Let’s say as a bonus, we keep the Senate.
The result, no, none, nadda judicial nominations will advance past the dem filibuster.
So, when we lose, we lose. When we win, we lose. Yipee for the McCain/prisoner wing of the Republican Party.
Dear trent: you are so then. Shut up.
Quote: “McConnell should announce that he’ll revert to the centuries-old traditional policy once all the Democrats who’ve benefited from the ‘nuclear option’ have left the Senate.”
Or, we will revert to the old rules when as many Republican nominees have been confirmed under the new rules as Obama got through.
McConnell may be a lot of things, and one of them is this: he is smarter than Trent Lott.
I remember Lott’s time in the Senate. Remarkably unremarkable.
Hey- that is a thoughful analysis- Knee jerk is the usual reaction of many FREEPers
Your departure did much to improve the bilious atmosphere, but as far as enhancing the minority party's power in any way...suck an egg.
Harry Reid shall reap what he sowed.
(I hope...so far I'm not overly impressed.)
Trent Lott (RINO) suggests the way forward for McConnell (Uber RINO)? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Why can’t these old political horses just go away?
I suspect if Keystone Pipeline and a few others come up during the first few days of the “new” Senate, that there will be some interesting bipartisan backslapping going on.
Will it last? I don't know how bad certain Democratic Senators want to be reelected, but it could.
“Or, we will revert to the old rules when as many Republican nominees have been confirmed under the new rules as Obama got through.”
Excellent - better than my proposal in that yours is actually realistic. But it covers the main points: the traditional Senate rules should be reinstated, but only after the Democrats have paid a price commensurate to the magnitude of their bastardization of the system.
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