Free Republic

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday afternoon set up several votes to end debate on a slew of executive branch nominees, including several staunchly opposed by Republicans. The procedural maneuvers sets up a showdown with Republicans next week over the Senate’s filibuster rule. Reid and other Democratic leaders urged colleagues in a private meeting earlier in the day to support changing the rule if Republicans blocked the nominees. Reid set up votes to end debate and to proceed to a final votes on several nominees, including Richard Cordray, President Obama’s pick to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,...

You can’t be “just a little bit pregnant.” Similarly, you can’t cheat “just a little.” Once you have made it clear that you are willing to break the rules in order to win, the rules are meaningless. So it is with some alarm that we note that Harry Reid -- in an exercise of raw power -- intends within the next week to try to openly break the Senate rules in order to confirm all pending Executive Branch nominees. You may remember that, at the beginning of the year, Reid made the specious argument that you could change the rules...