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 ...
Trent was instrumental in 1997 in shutting down Woody Jenkins’s challenge to Mary Landriu’s false 1996 election. Trent is now in business with Mary’s all and pre-Vitter seat-mate, John Breaux.
Collins, Kirk, and Murkowski are in a class of their own. It’s ridiculous to compare Orrin Hatch to them.
Trent who???
Just like those CA *conservatives* who fixed CA by refusing to vote. CA is great now.
I got flamed beyond description by the Mississippi Mafia here when I took a shot at Trent Lott back in the day. I still think he looks like a homo.
May this bastard burn in hell.
Nossir. He knows its a knife fight. He wants us (and America) to lose.
Do not NOT vote. Just vote for those that aren’t in on the fix.
Keep talking like that and Chester will take you off his Christmas Card list.
Hatch co-sponsored Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
” Lott was one of the very first liberal infiltrators.
May this bastard burn in hell. “
I can’t speak for God, but I would sure put Lott in hell. 100% traitor.
Ginsberg was confirmed 96 to 3. Collins, Murkowski, and Kirk are markedly to the left of McCain and Graham, let alone Hatch.
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