Mitch McConnell + John Cornyn = Preemptive Capitulation as a Strategy
The GOPe moss backs are only interested in paying back the Chamber of Amnesty for bankrolling their victory. They don’t want to save the country.
If Barry tries to ram through another Marxist on the Supreme Court and it’s voted on anything but a simple majority I can’t imagine anyone voting Republican again.
We went through this before when Gingrich was speaker. Since then we have found out this is not a call based on constitutialism. It is merely an effort for the dims to retain disproportionate power to their status.
Personally, I say F#$k 'em and the donkeys they rode in on. If the dims really want to change they need to dump the idiots leading them and select leaders who are not delusional.
Since we have a Dem president and a Republican senate, I would take it back to 60 votes for conformation. That would make it very difficult for the president to get anyone approved.
Lick spittles...
They don’t need to call it payback, the Republicans need a few years to straighten out what Reid screwed up. That is unless the Republicans want to weasel out on filibuster threats. My guess is the Republican Weasel theory.
I’m guessing that Slimeball Harry will change it back during the lame duck.
The point of requiring a simple majority for executive picks for executive and judicial branch nominees is to expedite the confirmation process. Do you really want to help confirm Obama’s nominees? Enough GOP senators will vote to confirm Obama’s nominees to get a majority vote. It is only by requiring a 60 vote super-majority to bring the confirmation to a vote that Obama’s nominees can be blocked.
Then, back to traditional rules would be best, including a constitutional amendment forbidding another "nuclear option".
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i have no doubt republicans will not make the democrats live under their nuclear option rules.
I think Reid abused and demonized the GOP to the point that real serious bad feeling are at play here....
Under normal circumstances I think McConnell would play nice, but I believe Reid burned that bridge a long time ago....
I base that on Reid has been quiet as a church mouse pretty much and knows he is in a serious deep hole with across the aisle relationships....
GOP want Power Sharing ?
They weren’t elected to share power. The nuclear option should stay in place.
Mitch has the same goals as Obama it seems, under any rules
Since blog pimping is frowned upon in this establishment, here is the section that I wrote about this back in 2012:
“THE GANG OF 14
The camaraderie of the Senate was under attack when President George Bush decided to fulfill his duty and appoint his choice for judgeships. Progressives threatened to filibuster. However, the Republicans planned what became known as the dreaded Nuclear Option. It was an attempt by Bill Frist, then President of the Senate, to end a filibuster by amending the Senate rules to end the filibuster by a simple majority of 51. A 60-vote majority is needed to call for cloture on a filibuster by current Senate Rules. Changing this rule was, and still is, completely inside the bounds of the Senate Rules and the Traditions. That fact is key. So is this fact; it has all happened before, and it will all happen again. Republicans at that time had a 55-vote majority which could have removed the filibuster and allowed each nominee an up or down vote, once again according to the Constitution and to tradition. The tradition of the Senate has been historically to give every nomination an up or down vote. By filibustering, the Senate Democrats gave a higher threshold for the nomination process, a 60-vote majority instead of a simple majority. A group of Democrats and Republicans formed to stop this attack at the calm Senate atmosphere. The seven Republicans of the Gang were: John Warner (VA), Susan Collins (ME), Olympia Snowe (ME), Mike Dewine (OH), Lindsey Graham (SC), Lincoln Chafee (RI), and John McCain (AZ). The Gang of 14 was not a rock group or punk band. These Republicans in name only forged a group with seven other Democrats to stop the use of the dreaded Republican nuclear option. In a conservative turn, Senator Orrin Hatch defended the dreaded Nuclear Option. President Bush had begun his presidency calling for a New Tone in Washington politics. He wanted everyone to play nice. Charging to the defense of the New Tone in danger by principled Conservatives, Senator Bob Dole loosed a blistering editorial. He decried the dreaded Nuclear Option which would allow the Senate Republican Majority to end the filibuster of Bush’s nominees. This was met by the glorious applause of his Senate cohorts. During the McCain 2008 Presidential run, McCain was being sold as some heroic ender of filibusters, finder of peace, and calm hand at the wheel. McCarthy and Levin wrote a piece that repudiated that false narrative. James Madison saw the Senate as a place where cooler heads prevail, as the cool saucer for the hot and lively House. It did not turn out that way for the Senate this time. Sadly by May 24 th of 2005, the RINOs won by stopping the dreaded Nuclear Option. They ended debate, and they only allowed certain nominees a vote. They refused to “advise” the rest of the President’s choices. This Gang of 14 changed the understanding of “advise” in
the Constitution’s Provisions for the Executive Branch. Even more troubling is the language at the end of the official statement which supposes some quasi-permanent agreement to institutionalize this agreement for judicial nominations. This is an incredibly unconstitutional and dangerous precedent in Senate rules. Three of the seven RINOs are no longer in the Senate. Senator John Warner, a distinguished World War II veteran, did not seek reelection in 2008. During his tenure, John Warner was a supporter of gun control who voted for the Brady Bill, fought with Diane Feinstein for a 10-year extension on the Assault Weapons Ban, voted against Reagan’s nomination for Supreme Court Justice, the extremely qualified Robert Bork, worked to undermine the Bush Administration’s detainment of terrorists, and worked unsuccessfully to make Cap and Trade a reality. Mike Dewine lost his Ohio Senate seat in 2006 to Democrat Sherrod Brown. This was due to Dewine’s participation in the Gang of 14, his gun control beliefs, and the corruption scandal of Republican Governor Bob Taft. Lincoln Chafee was a member of the Republican
Main Street Partnership who supported abortion. He opposed the death penalty, opposed charter schools supporting failing public schools, supported embryonic stem cell research, supported gay rights, supported the Death Tax opposing any repeal, and consistently lobbied Israel to retreat from its land. He voted against President Bush by writing in George H. W. Bush on his general election ballot. He opposed John Bolton’s nomination, and was the only Republican to oppose the nomination of Samuel Alito. Chafee even considered running against George Bush for the
nomination of the Republican Party! No wonder Human Events gave Lincoln Chafee the ignoble title, RINO of the year. However, it is a wonder why after years of defiant opposition from Chafee, President Bush decided to stump for him in the primary against a conservative who lost by an extremely small margin. So typical of a Progressive Republican. The peace of the Senate was restored, which meant that the Democrats won. Conservatives cringed at the damage done by this band of misguided fools.
Commentators asked the beleaguered troops to be angry but wait for the eventual collapse of whatever “extraordinary circumstances” came to mean. Conservatives were correct to expect a short-lived truce. The lofty ideals the Gang of 14 fell back down to earth. Filibusters resumed in earnest in
2011. The Gang was broken.”