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.
Kay, I thought about your answer and I realize my question was a little silly:
I think you believe that the rules will revert to the old arrangement, simply because it is in the GOP interest to make the approval “bar” higher, rather than the unusual place to which it was lowered.
Right?
You are correct Zhang. With a Democrat president, McConnell should raise it back to 60 votes for confirmations. When we get a Republican president, he should lower it back to 51.