UPDATE: Here's what the President had to say about why the Nuclear Option was necessary:
Over the six decades before I took office, only 20 presidential nominees to executive positions had to overcome filibusters. In just under five years since I took office, nearly 30 nominees have been treated this way. These are all public servants who protect our national security, look out for working families, keep our air and water clean.Exactly right -- GOP obstructionism in this regard had nothing to do with the qualification of any of these nominees and everything to do with nullifying the last two presidential elections.
This year alone, for the first time in history, Senate Republicans filibustered a President's nominee for the Secretary of Defense who used to be a former Republican senator. They tried everything they could to hold up our EPA Administrator. They blocked our nominee for our top housing regulator at a time when we need more help for more families to afford a home and prevent what has caused mortgage meltdowns from happening again.
And in each of these cases, it's not been because they opposed the person, that there was some assessment that they were unqualified, that there was some scandal that had been unearthed. It was simply because they opposed the policies that the American people voted for in the last election.
Sorry GOP, but elections do have consequences, even presidential elections that put a (gasp!) Black Man in the Oval Office. Deal with it.
UPDATE II: From Ed Kilgore:
[I]t was a foregone conclusion that Republicans would “go nuclear”—certainly over judges, and maybe over everything—if and when they were back in power. I mean, seriously, does anyone think that after forty years of promises to the Christian Right the GOP is going to be able to deny its “base” the fifth sure Supreme Court vote (perhaps) necessary to overturn Roe v. Wade? Over a Senate rule? No way. The judicial filibuster power was doomed anyway, and all it served to do at present was as a temporary instrument for GOP power that would be exercised by any means available.Fucking-A.
2 comments:
This is a wonderful thing. Best part is that, as Kos notes, there is really no logic behind the chess game republicans are playing:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/21/1257310/-Senate-GOP-blows-itself-up-What-the-hell-where-they-thinking?detail=email#
Yeah, that specific post on Kos was my favorite from yesterday. Slic[k] and I were talking about it. All the GOP would've had to do was give the Dems an up-or-down vote on one (or at most, two) of Obama's DC Circuit nominees, and the Dems would have backed down because that's what congressional democrats do. They are weak. But McConnell gave Reid no choice but to go nuclear.
Some out there have suggested that McConnell played it this way because now he won't look as bad when he gets rid of the filibuster entirely if and when the GOP takes control of the Senate (something he would certainly do if given the opportunity). But he paid a pretty heavy price, because as a result, Obama will get to fill all 93 of the open seats on the federal bench instead of just a handful, and these appointments are for life.
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