Posted on 12/05/2016 1:01:25 PM PST by SeekAndFind
That’ll be … difficult to do since they can’t control which nominations reach the floor and foolishly farted away their power to filibuster nominees three years ago.
The left is anxious, though, and wants to see some fight in their team so Schumer and his caucus are stuck with slowdown tactics.
“They’ve been rewarded for stealing a Supreme Court justice. We’re going to help them confirm their nominees, many of whom are disqualified?” fumed Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). “It’s not obstruction, it’s not partisan, it’s just a duty to find out what they’d do in these jobs.”…
Democrats could conceivably force up to 30 hours of debate for each Cabinet nominee, which would be highly disruptive for a GOP Senate that usually works limited hours but has big ambitions for next year. The minority could also stymie lower-level nominees and potentially keep the Senate focused on executive confirmations for weeks as Trump assumes the presidency and congressional Republicans try to capitalize on their political momentum…
Democrats are likely to require roll call votes and possibly delay the nominations of Betsy DeVos to be secretary of education and Tom Price to to be Health and Human Services secretary, in addition to Mattis, Mnuchin and Sessions.
The attorney general nominee looks like he’s in for an especially rough ride. Brown said Sessions “was dissed by the Senate once for his racism,” a reference to his rejection by the chamber 30 years ago to become a federal judge.
We’ll have to blog in shifts in February so that someone’s around for all of the inevitable 3 a.m. tweets by President Trump grumbling about Democratic obstructionism. The main target appears to be Jeff Sessions, partly because Dems think they can make hay of the racial accusations that helped block him from a seat on the federal bench 30 years ago and partly because the position he’s up for carries heavier symbolic significance than other cabinet positions do. The Justice Department is supposed to stand apart from politics; the Attorney General sets the tone for how committed the new administration is to the rule of law. Senate Democrats want to delegitimize their friend and colleague Sessions in hopes of casting an early pall over Trump. Sessions’s confirmation is a fait accompli, though. If even one Senate Republican has said he’d opposed to the pick, I’ve missed it. If there’s any suspense on the actual floor vote, it’ll be how many purple-state Dems run away from their base and vote with the GOP. Schumer’s going to lose his first big fight, although if he can give Trump a black eye by damaging Sessions, he’ll probably take that.
What Democrats would really like to do is block at least one of Trump’s nominees but their options for doing that are few. If Trump rolls the dice on David Petraeus for Secretary of State, Schumer might be able to peel off enough Republicans to deny Petraeus 51 votes. The Democratic base will demand party unanimity on that vote, I assume, as payback for Trump’s attacks on Hillary for mishandling classified information during the campaign. If Dems hang together, Schumer would only need three GOPers to defeat the nomination. If Trump doesn’t nominate Petraeus but chooses someone less controversial, like Mitt Romney or Jon Huntsman, then the best and maybe only option to defeat one of Trump’s nominees is … James Mattis, who needs a waiver from the law requiring seven years of retirement before a veteran can serve as Defense secretary. That waiver can be filibustered; all Schumer would need is 41 members from his 48-seat caucus to go along. The political problem is that Mattis may well be the most popular cabinet pick Trump has made. He’s widely respected as intelligent and disciplined and adored by the Marines who served under him. Defeating him would be spun by Trump as a slight to the military writ large and to a man who’s served his country well for decades. And whoever Trump nominates after Mattis’s defeat could be considerably worse. But the left may demand a scalp from Schumer, and if he can’t find one elsewhere, Mattis’s may be the only option. What does Schumer do then?
The fallback plan, I assume, if all of Trump’s cabinet nominees end up being confirmed is for Dems to pay back the GOP for Garland by Borking virtually anyone Trump nominates for the Scalia vacancy on the Supreme Court. (The filibuster still exists for SCOTUS nominees, remember.) You can foresee how Trump will react to that: “If they block my first nominee, my second will be twice as conservative.” It’ll be the judicial equivalent of “the wall just got 10 feet higher.” Democrats might be OK with Borking the second nominee too, though, again on the theory that they’re only showing the same resolve in protecting the vacancy that Republicans showed in refusing to give Garland a hearing and a floor vote. Schumer’s going to need to huddle with red-state Democrats like Tester and McCaskill sometime soon and gauge how much political pain they’re prepared to endure in the name of blocking Trump’s Court nominees. Will they vote for a filibuster on the first nominee? On the second? He can lose seven of them but no more. Given the reports of angry Hillary staffers out for revenge against Trump, I assume some sort of new pressure group will be in place next month for Democrats to lean on the Testers and McCaskills to stand firm against Trump’s picks. But then, I also assumed Hillary would take Wisconsin and Michigan more seriously as swing states than Arizona.
Exit question: If Reid hadn’t nuked the filibuster for presidential nominations three years ago, would McConnell be preparing to nuke it now? I assume the answer is yes, knowing that Trump would throw an epic public tantrum once he discovered that the rule that’s allowing Democrats to block his cabinet picks could be canceled by the GOP at a moment’s notice. But that’s a hesitant yes. There are some old-school Senate traditionalists in the GOP caucus who look dimly on the idea of further restraints on the filibuster, and with a 52/48 Senate, McConnell could only afford to lose two votes. I’m not so sure it happens without Reid’s precedent. Congratulations on your legacy, Harry.
Beyond that, I observe that "If the Lord wills" translates to Arabic as "inshallah". The followers of Mad Mo serve as a cautionary tale regarding that philosophy.
The real problems may be here, certainly not all of them but a few real cuckservatives. Sessions should beat the ones I’ve asterixed daily with a cane no thicker than his thumb.
SENATOR STATE
RE-ELECT YEAR
ISSUE ALIGNMENT
PERSONAL SUPPORT
ELECTORAL INCENTIVE
TRUMP SUPPORT SCORE
*Collins ME 2020 2.5 3 2.5 2.7
Heller NV 2018 3.5 3 2.5 2.9
*McCain AZ 2022 3 3 3.5 3.1
Gardner CO 2020 4 3 2.5 3.2
Portman OH 2022 3 3 4 3.2
Murkowski AK 2022 3 3 4.5 3.3
*Flake AZ 2018 3.5 3 3.5 3.4
*Graham SC 2020 4 2 4.5 3.5
Lee UT 2022 3.5 3 4.5 3.5
Toomey PA 2022 4 4 3 3.8
Paul KY 2022 3 4 5 3.8
Rubio FL 2022 4 4 3 3.8
Sullivan AK 2020 4 3 4.5 3.8
Capito WV 2020 3.5 3.5 5 4.0
Rounds SD 2020 3 4 5 4.0
Cruz TX 2018 4 4 4 4.0
Boozman AR 2022 3.5 4 5 4.0
Thune SD 2022 3.5 4 5 4.0
Tillis NC 2020 4.5 4 3.5 4.0
Hatch UT 2018 3.5 4 4.5 4.1
Blunt MO 2022 3 5 4.5 4.1
Kennedy* LA 2022 3 5 4.5 4.1
*Sasse NE 2020 4.5 3 5 4.2
Roberts KS 2020 3.5 4 5 4.2
*McConnell KY 2020 3.5 4 5 4.2
Cochran MS 2020 4 4 4.5 4.2
Cornyn TX 2020 3.5 5 4 4.2
Grassley IA 2022 3.5 5 4 4.2
Isakson GA 2022 3.5 5 4 4.2
Johnson WI 2022 4 5 3 4.2
Crapo ID 2022 4 4 5 4.2
Burr NC 2022 4 5 3.5 4.3
Scott SC 2022 4.5 4 4.5 4.3
Daines MT 2020 4 4 5 4.3
Alexander TN 2020 4 4 5 4.3
Inhofe OK 2020 4 4 5 4.3
Ernst IA 2020 4 5 4 4.3
Wicker MS 2018 3.5 5 4.5 4.4
Moran KS 2022 3.5 5 5 4.4
Lankford OK 2022 3.5 5 5 4.4
Fischer NE 2018 4 4 5 4.4
Cotton AR 2020 3.5 5 5 4.5
Risch ID 2020 4.5 4 5 4.5
Young IN 2022 4 5 4.5 4.5
Corker TN 2018 3.5 5 5 4.6
Hoeven ND 2022 4 5 5 4.6
Shelby AL 2022 4 5 5 4.6
Sessions AL 2020 4 5 5 4.7
Enzi WY 2020 4 5 5 4.7
Cassidy LA 2020 4.5 5 4.5 4.7
Perdue GA 2020 5 5 4 4.7
Barrasso WY 2018 4 5 5 4.7
Just saying, I ain’t ruling out any kind of weird move in this picture.
The rules that we knew are being smashed.
The “good Democrat” is kind of like the way the idea of “good Samaritan” looked in gospel times. What will a person do if he finds himself unexpectedly free? Then we will see the difference between a weak person and a willfully wicked person.
What gave us a Kim Davis and her witness? Well, we DID know she was a believer. But not yet for all that long.
Any agency that the Senate fails to confirm a cabinet member within 30 days will simply be eliminated.
Obama’s nominee for SCOTUS, an appointment which the Republican-controlled Senate declined to even hold confirmation hearings on.
In Joe Manchin's case, you're asking if he will give up his love of big government, socialism, and gun control.
Pray for his conversion.
Why that's what twitter is for don't ya know. President Trumps gonna have some late night fun!
“Conservative Review ratings:
McConnell: 40%
McCain: 32%
Graham: 30%
Manchin: 16%
FYI”
As a Republican I bet those numbers would change quite a lot for Sen Manchin.
Rush always said liberals are funny when they are out of power.
“They can try that in 2019 when Tump is a lame duck.”
Trump won’t be a lame duck until late 2023.
That's exactly how liberal darling William J. Brennan began his career on the SCOTUS.
While Obama can't make a recess appointment of Garland without the GOP Senate declaring a recess, the GOP controlled Senate can/will call an early recess for a Trump recess appointment - that will last till January 2019.
You’re probably right. I meant in the fourth year of his term.
That’s actually OK. It will cut through the chaff pretty quick.
Very true. But there has to be something very satisfying about throwing trash into the faces of corrupt haughty legislators.
Hope they do....Then nuke’em...
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