The nuclear option: Senator Obama has a bone to pick with President Obama
And Senator Feinstein has some harsh words for Senator Feinstein, while Senator Harry Reid disagrees with Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senator Joe Biden begs to differ with Vice President Joe Biden, Assistant Minority Leader Dick Durbin counters Majority Whip Dick Durbin, and—oh, you get the idea:
By the way, this is one of the issues on which both parties switch sides regularly, depending on who’s in power. The difference is that, in the GOP, enough RINOs bonded with Democrats to stop it from actually happening.
So now we have this successful and strategically-timed Democratic power grab [emphasis mine]:
Whatever the merits of filibustering judicial nominees, it was obvious that the Democrats would end the practice as soon as they had both the power and the need to do so. Now they have.
Predictably, no bipartisan “Gang” stepped up to prevent this. Bipartisanship runs only one way in these matters.
Thanks to [Lindsay] Graham, Democrats were able to use the filibuster to block nominees like Jim Haynes and Peter Keisler. If Graham hadn’t played the stooge, the Fourth Circuit would be more conservative today and, with fewer vacancies to fill on the D.C. Circuit, Obama would not be about to flip it his way.
More here from Bill Otis, who points out that the rule changed yesterday had stood for about 200 years. Again, we have the interesting situation (as with Obamacare) where only one party, Democratic, voted for the bill. It was the opposition that was bipartisan.
I mentioned that the timing was strategic. Otis explains that this is all about Obama doing an end run around Congress through the regulatory process:
The Administration has an ambitious regulatory agenda it can’t get through Congress because the opposition party controls the House. It thus plans to push through what it wants via executive orders and administrative agency rules, all of which will be challenged in court. And the court that will decide those challenges will be none other than the DC Circuit…
The reason the Senate filibuster has its pedigree, and has been maintained by both parties for such a very long time, and through administrations of wildly differing outlooks, is the recognition that what seems like a good idea right now might later, with more time to examine its long term unforeseen effects and unintended consequences, seem less appetizing than it did at first…
The ability to entertain that sort of thinking depends, of course, on a certain reasonably high degree of maturity. With pugilist Harry Reid in command, that was only going to last so long, and today it went bye-bye.
…[T]his is somewhat personal to me, because two friends of mine, Peter Keisler and Miguel Estrada, were denied seats on the federal courts of appeals because of filibusters or the threat thereof, and were turned away even though they were universally known to be brilliant lawyers and honorable men. Those filibusters were eagerly, indeed belligerently, supported by Harry Reid.
…[T]his power-grabbing spasm is astoundingly short-sighted. With Obama’s approval ratings now in the 30’s and cratering, and the worst failures and deceptions of Obamacare yet to land on the American public, Democrats are looking for the tall grass. But there will be little tall grass to be found when the election rolls around in less than a year. Their margin in the Senate is thin (five seats) as it stands. Harry Reid thus stands an excellent chance of having fashioned a weapon he’ll have for a year or two or three, and his opponents will have for the indefinite future thereafter.
I am reasonably certain that Harry Reid isn’t really so very short-sighted, he just fails to see the future Otis’s way. He is counting on holding onto the Senate in 2014, and he may well do so. But even if he doesn’t succeed on that score, he is banking on the fact that, with the DC Circuit safely in friendly hands, the court will give the stamp of approval to whatever Obama wants to do (in the regulatory sense) for the next three years. That can be an awful lot, and a great deal of it will probably be geared to solidifying and institutionalizing Democratic control of the voting public.
[NOTE: That clip of the Democrats waxing eloquent about the value of preserving the filibuster and minority rights would make a nice campaign video, wouldn’t it, contrasted with their stance now that they’re the ones in power?]
I think the WSJ said it best:
“The next GOP President should line up Federalist Society alumni for judicial nominations like planes waiting to take off at O’Hare International Airport. Imagine two or three more Clarence Thomases on the High Court confirmed with 51 Senate votes. Planned Parenthood can send its regrets to Harry Reid.”
Assuming the Left doesn’t blackmail those judges into compliance once on the bench.
@ I Callahan – you’re assuming we’re going to have another (R) President anytime in the next generation. I highly doubt this will be the case.
Add Hillary Clinton to Obama, Reid, Biden and Feinstein’s hypocrisy.
Clinton: Senate Should Reject Nuclear Option, Remember Founders
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the likely 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, spoke out against the nuclear option on May 23, 2005 in the U.S. Senate, when she said to “maintain the integrity” of the body, the Senate should not do what Reid is now doing.
More fuel for the political furnace in 2016.
you’re assuming we’re going to have another (R) President anytime in the next generation. I highly doubt this will be the case.
I’m not so sure. Obamacare is a complete mess, and it’s only going to get worse. And when these young people start paying out of their pockets for health insurance, let’s see how they react then.
William A. Jacobson provides a positive “take”, at Legal Insurrection, in a piece titled, “Democrats nuked the ratchet”,
“When Democrats – the embodiment of redistribution and statism – exercised the Nuclear Option yesterday, they blew up the ratchet. The filibuster is dead for all purposes, even if superficially only as to non-Supreme Court nomninees. No one will respect the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees or important legislation – the Senate can’t be half pregnant.”
Jacobson quotes Ezra Klein,
“There’s a lot of upside for Republicans in how this went down. It came at a time when Republicans control the House and are likely to do so for the duration of President Obama’s second term, so the weakening of the filibuster will have no effect on the legislation Democrats can pass. The electoral map, the demographics of midterm elections, and the political problems bedeviling Democrats make it very likely that Mitch McConnell will be majority leader come 2015 and then he will be able to take advantage of a weakened filibuster. And, finally, if and when Republicans recapture the White House and decide to do away with the filibuster altogether, Democrats won’t have much of an argument when they try to stop them . . .”
[M J R inserts, lack of a consistent argument has never stopped the Democrats (as neo’s embedded videos conveniently illustrate), for whom the Agenda comes first; pointing out inconsistencies is very easily overcome via name-calling and out-shouting the pointer-outer, aided by the ever-compliant mainstream media.]
Jacobson concludes,
“The ratchet has been broken. And opportunity created, even if dependent upon future electoral success. It’s now up to us to seize the opportunity.”
http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/11/democrats-nuked-the-ratchet/
They’re only using nukes because they are going for the end game. All or nothing.
“they are going for the end game”
I hope you are a prophet, as I welcome the ‘end game’. I’m getting too old to be of much use if the ‘end game’ comes 5-8 years from now. Fortunately, my eyesight is still 20-20, but my right knee is a weak point.
Any war requires an abstract cause, strategy, tactics, and logistics supporting it all.
While those who can pull the trigger are limited in number, it’s more important to setup training facilities and cadres for the raising of the next generation.
Manpower is merely another resource, a statistic, that no strategy or tactic can entirely ignore.
My analysis hasn’t changed since 2006-8. Civil War within 20 years if Obama is re-elected in 2012.
So far, things are progressing according to scale.
“The electoral map, the demographics of midterm elections, and the political problems bedeviling Democrats make it very likely that Mitch McConnell will be majority leader come 2015 and then he will be able to take advantage of a weakened filibuster.” Jacobson quoting Ezra Klein
Very likely? I think not. Certainly possible but its wishful thinking to assume that regaining the Senate is “very likely”.
Secondly, RINO McConnell will take advantage of a weakened filibuster? Perhaps selectively but not on any legislation that actually seeks to roll back leftist advances.
Thirdly, Obama will still have the veto… and its very unlikely that Republicans will have either the votes or the fortitude to amass the votes needed to override Presidential vetoes.
No, Yamarsakar is on track, this is part of the left’s strategic preparations for their final end game. The left can’t risk another Republican President and Republican majority with the Senate filibuster gone.
The latest polling shows Obama’s numbers plunging with women.
All across the land, women are discovering that they CAN’T keep their doctor.
Healthcare.gov is not even half written!
It’s going to be the gift that just keeps on giving.
In eleven months, the new monthly premiums — and deductibles — will be stuffing mail boxes right in front of the election.
Long before that, war should’ve broken out in Iran.
Barry should be taking his polling figures into Carteresque craterville.
=======
Of late I’ve been hearing Democrat politicians bemoaning the destruction of their party by the tyrant in the Pink House.
It’s only now starting to dawn on them that THEY’RE in Barry’s cross hairs.
Can you shoot accurately from a sitting position? Yes? Then you’re good to go.
Actually, The Pink House, or the Casa Rosada, is the Argentine Government’s Presidential Mansion in Buenos Aires.
And yes, it is pink, pink marble. I’ve seen it.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Casa_Rosada_in_Buenos_Aires.jpg
It’s more of a Black House now.
And by that I mean household troops, plantations.
http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/household-troops-secret-service-in-america/
Stormtroopers, wearing black helmets instead of white. Those are the elite.
All across the land, women are discovering that they CAN’T keep their doctor.
Soon they’ll be forced to pay for their own rape kits too. That was part of the Left’s plan. At that point, any protection feminism offers, will be eagerly taken up, in return for cult like devotion and worship. Only a free and secure people can decide to fight for their ideals. The rest are too busy shining shoes and crawling around on the ground for food.
My guess is the (D)s lose their majority in the senate in November, then sometime before January (Christmas Eve?) vote to reinstate the filibuster.
Snackeater:
I think you may be correct, but once the precedent is established, it is established, and the Republicans would be more likely to try it, too.
True. But can you imagine the outrage that would come from the T-P media if they did?
RickZ,
I am accurate regardless of position out to 400 yards, but most accurate shooting from the prone position just like everyone else. However, after firing 1 or 2 rounds its a good idea to change your location fast. That is where my knee comes into the picture. 😉
BTW, I’ve been thinking about ‘end game’ for 4 decades. Through my influence my adult children understand that ‘end game’ is always a distinct possibility. Same goes for almost all of my extended family. We are as well prepared as possible; including a well stocked retreat position in an undisclosed location. We can handle this. It will take multiple air strikes to take us out.
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