Posted on 03/30/2017 2:54:34 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Senators Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitkamp on Thursday became the first Democrats to support the confirmation of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, giving Republicans two of eight Democratic votes needed to avoid a nasty fight on the U.S. Senate floor next week.
Both West Virginia's Manchin and North Dakota's Heitkamp are up for re-election next year in states that voted for Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
"I hold no illusions that I will agree with every decision Judge Gorsuch may issue in the future, but I have not found any reasons why this jurist should not be a Supreme Court justice," Manchin said in a statement.
"He has a record as a balanced, meticulous and well-respected jurist who understands the rule of law," Heitkamp said in a statement.
Another Democrat seen as on the fence, Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington state, said on Thursday she would back an effort to block Gorsuch's confirmation....
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
That leaves room for 5 more dimoKKKRATS to vote for Gorsuch if they want. There will not be a total of 8 as that would give 60 votes.
Two semi-sane Democrats...what are the odds?
I’ll be the contrarian and say they will get to 60. The Rats don’t want to face the nuclear option with the next Supreme Court opening.
Ginsberg could fall asleep permanently at any time.
Manchin can't afford to act like an anti-Trump 'resistance' Democrat too much.
You’ve nailed it, almost perfectly. Looking for our Montana doughboy Jon Tester to try to start looking conservative as he has always done just before an election. He’s being forced to start faking it early this time. This SCOTUS nomination is huge, but the Dems are really in a twist. In this case, I do think they’ll not risk falling to the nuclear option. I think it’s manufactured drama. They’ll give up at the 11th hour.
But. We won’t know until next week.
Why doesn’t McConnell just NUKE the Senate Rats, why is he wasting time trying to come up with 60 votes that he won’t get? GO NUCLEAR!! Enough said!!!
60 Democrats will vote for closure. They can then vote against the nomination and get some cover from their far left wing base. Filling Scalia's seat with Gorsuch will not change the balance on the Court.
If the Democrats filibuster Gorsuch then it is clear that the Democrats will filibuster anyone that Trump ever nominates and the Republicans, including the RINOs, will have no choice but to invoke the Reid Rule and permanently nuke the Supreme Court filibuster.
If the Democrats do not filibuster Gorsuch, then they can still filibuster the next nominee if Trump gets to replace one of the octogenarians on the Court (Breyer, Kennedy and Ginsburg). Depending on how conservative that the nominee is, the Democrats may be able to get 3 RINOs to go along with not invoking the Reid Rule. That is all they need to keep the filibuster in place.
Because it is not certain that McConnell can get 51 Republican Senators to agree to permanently nuke Supreme Court filibusters. It is stupid I agree, but all it will take is 3 RINOs to block invoking the Reid Rule.
If 51 Republican Senators would publicly announce that they will join in nuking any filibuster of Gorsuch, then the Democrats would have no choice but to back down. So far, that is not happening.
My reservation about Judge Gorsuch is this. If it turns out that Gorsuch is a liberal Trojan Horse, then the uniparty Congress probably won’t question Gorsuch’s decisions like it wrongly ignored lawless Obama’s unconstitutional (imo) actions.
No offense friend, but Wyoming gave Trump 68.2% of its vote. West Va. gave him 67.9. I say this because I checked it not too long after the vote.
>>Two semi-sane Democrats...what are the odds?<<
I think they wisely fear the nuke. The way things are stacked up, (D) may not have any majorities for the next 20 years or so.
The filibuster is the only hope they have — not for SCOTUS but everything else. B/c when the nuke is dropped for SCOTUS it is dropped for everything.
Collins and McCain were on the original gang of 14, designed to prevent Frist from invoking the nuclear option when it would have benefited GWB's nominees. I'm pretty sure Graham and Murkowski would also side with the DEMs, if Trump nominates a republican judge to replace a democrat judge. McConnell's threat of the nuclear option is a hollow as the HOUSE GOP passing "repeal Obamacare" was - it's a safe threat so long as it need not come into play.
Why not go back to the original filibuster rule? Make the Senators actually get up and speak until they drop. Then hold the vote. You maintain the filibuster, don’t go nuclear, but still end up with your man on the court? The more Democrats talk the crazier they sound. They will be the reason that the work of the Senate is being held up. Blame them for the mini-shut down of government business.
"Donald Trump easily won West Virginia with 68.7% of the vote, giving him his largest margin of victory in the country. Hillary Clinton received 26.5% of the vote." -Wikipedia
That’s what they do. “OK, we have 7 votes to give. Who needs it so they can try to get reelected in a Trump state? Show of hands? OK, I see Manchin and Heitkamp. What about you, Nelson? Debbie, you want to join them? Great? Who else wants to fool the dummies in their state? Lindsey, what are you doing in here? Get the hell out! Yes you can vote for Gorsuch.”
Hope they don’t get to the eight they need to break a filibuster - that’ll mean the ‘pubs can go nuclear this time, and they’ll be no doubt they can go that route for the next one or two or three appointments that may be coming along.....
Let me guess, both up for reelection next year in states Trump won?
If this was reversed and it was McAmnesty and Linda Graham the media and Dems would be crowing about bipartisanship. But of course....
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