Free Republic

Add Beto O’Rourke to a growing list of Democratic presidential candidates who are considering scrapping long-standing Senate procedure in hopes of passing a sweeping progressive agenda should they make it to the White House.

Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he is confident that he has laid the groundwork for Democrats to nuke the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees if they win back the Senate in November. Envisioning Hillary Clinton in the White House and Democrats controlling the Senate, Reid warned that if a Senate Republican minority block her Supreme Court nominee, he is confident the party won’t hesitate to change the filibuster rules again. Such a move would be an extension of what Reid did in 2013 when he was still majority leader, eliminating filibusters (with a simple majority vote) on...

The Senate Majority Leader is threatening again that he will break Senate rules to change the rules—so he can do anything he wants with the bare minimum number of votes (51). ...This would mean effectively ending the use of the filibuster, Senators’ ability to speak at length against measures they oppose. That would be bad news, as this Senator explained: "Everyone in this chamber knows that if the majority chooses to end the filibuster—if they choose to change the rules and put an end to democratic debate—then the fighting and the bitterness and the gridlock will only get worse."...

Liberals don’t like the filibuster. They want to rid the Senate of it in the next few weeks so newly re-elected Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) can exclude Republicans from all aspects of the legislative process. Conservatives should watch closely to see if Reid tries to exterminate the filibuster from the Senate rules without a fair vote. Conservatives need to fight any change of the filibuster rule. Without it, the Obama Administration and Sen. Reid will ignore the will of the American people. Reid and his allies will railroad through left-wing nominees to the courts and the executive branch—in...