Comments

1
I don't see how that's really true about the Senate vs President thing. The cloture rules are just rules, entirely in control of the Senate and they could change them only with respect to Supreme Court nominees but keep them with respect to general legislation.

Historically, the Senate has allowed the President a lot of latitude on these nominations but it was framed within a context that who got to do the replacing was determined by the whims of the grim reaper - a species of fairness. Thurgood Marshall dies while George Bush (sr.) is president so we get Clarence Thomas as a replacement - a misfortune of giant proportions for the left. And this is the convention that Mitch McConnell blew a giant hole in last year.

So if we aren't going to honor the whims of the reaper, then we have to come to a new convention where you can only appoint judges who are acceptable to both parties - such people do exist. Otherwise, all pretense of the court being outside of partisan politics is lost.
2
Both parties have respected the virtual filibuster rule for 40 years (new rules were developed in 1975) as a way to excuse inaction or bad action. By going nuclear, McConnell would not only lose power to the President, but to the public. He could no longer say "look at the Democrats being obstructionist." Also, if and when the Democrats regain control of the House and/or Senate, they could use the nuclear option to eliminate obstructions from the Republican Party and within their own party (Lieberman!!).
4
It should be noted that senator Cantwell voted for the Iraq war.
I bring it up because her pretense civility is hurting all of us.
Repubs would have opposed any scouts nominee Clinton would have proposed regardless of who that person was. A "moderate," "maverick" like McCane said just that that during the presidential campaign.
Mariiah- Washington state voters are paying attention, hope you do too.
5
Cantwell is enabling Republicans to steal more seats/elections. She has to go.
6
Good for Merkley to say that the legitimacy of the court is at stake. Democrats have to take a stand(s) and ride it all the way to the mid-term elections
7
Good.

Republicans blocked Obama from choosing a replacement Justice for almost a year. They said they would continue to block Clinton if she won. Now they want everyone to forget that.

Fuck them.
8
"It should be noted that senator Cantwell voted for the Iraq war. "

OK, let me stop you right there.
9
Once the Republicans end the filibuster, they'll never get it back. Their future is as a minority, opposition party. These rightist spasms, bad as they are, are always temporary. I get excited just thinking about it.

Keep in mind, this isn't just about a smooth running progressive agenda once the country gets back to normal. It's one more step to end the gridlock that has driven so many voters away. The silver lining of all this, Trump's overreach and all, is that the disaffected electorate will see a government that does things. Get out the vote campaigns always try to say elections have consequences, but it rings hollow when voters see four years of obstruction. Low turnout is why republicans win in the first place. The filibuster is one of the most powerful tools to discourage participation.

Or we live with an 8 seat court. Then 7. I'm cool with that. If they go nuclear I'm cool with that too.
10
Stay "excited" #9, and keep rationalizing. You all are good at it.
11
Once the baby boomers die, we may finally be done with the Republican Party. Trouble is, they're just entering peak codger.
13
Fucknuts, I've despised the filibuster since you were in diapers.

What this comes down to is that when you take control of the government on a series of technicalities, you get a lot of power, but not as much as you thought. You have to face every day staring at Trump's record low approval ratings. No matter how delusional the man gets, he seems to realize that it matters. It's a check on his power.

Unless you think your Congress is a bunch of men of great courage. If you believe that, then yeah, I must be rationalizing. Let me know how that works out for you.
14
@11 :

(Democrats - Republicans) != Democrats

rather

(Democrats - Republicans) = (DemocratsL + DemocratsR)

15
How refreshing to see a senior Demicrat show signs of a spine. If they all had done this years ago we wouldn't be up against a Trump presidency.
16
Trump's low approval rating doesn't matter. He's still President. The only hope is that someone decides to...I won't say it.
17
@ 16,

It's OK, we're all praying for it.
18
@ 11,

That's the one ray of hope: Time.

Twitler and his hate-crazed white power base are really freakin' old. Within 10 years, the Silent Generation will be gone, along with at least half of the Boomers. Life expectancy is actually trending downwards due to obesity and will drop like a rock if the GOP succeeds in gutting the ACA and Medicare.

The Millennials will be the overwhelmingly largest generation, and they'll be totally traumatized from years of an abusive RepubliKKKan kleptocracy. They'll be seriously motivated to fix the country's problems, so revolutionary progressive changes are on the way, likely much sooner than most expect.
19
GO, Senator Patty Murray!! Kick serious GOP swamp creature ASS and take names!
20
@18 Original Andrew: One can only hope.
21
@19: "Kicking ass" is not an activity you'd guess of someone in Keds, but here we have it.
22
16, 17 - if you feel that strongly what is keeping you from taking one for the team?
23
Fine, force the Republicans to end the Filibuster for SCOTUS nominations the same way Harry Reid ended it for all other nominations in 2013. Gorsuch will be confirmed by a majority vote and with the Filbuster dead it will be that much easier to replace Justice Ginsburg with Judge Sykes.
24
@21: You'd be surprised at what Senator Murray has done and can do, whether or not she's wearing "tennis shoes". Are you among those afraid of any woman who can do her job well?
25
@22: Why don't you put your money where your mouth is and take one for the team?
@23 Good Lord, I hope not! We NEED SCOTUS Ruth Bader Ginsberg!
26
I have emailed both our senators. Murray didn't respond at all. Cantwell sent a nice moderate, measured response that talked about common ground and constitutional norms, etc...

I wrote back I would be voting for someone who understands these are not normal times and is prepared to fight back.

Now I hope someone like that runs against her.
27
@24: Calm down, it was a lazy joke about how boring Keds are, not Murray herself.

28
@ 26
Hopefully Judge Robarts does.
29
@23 if the GOP has a majority in the Senate, do you seriously believe Mitch McConnell will respect the fillibuster? You think he's going to restrain himself given the opportunity create a SCOTUS where the swing vote is well to the right of Kennedy? If so, you are delusional. Traditional Senate norms no longer exist.

At this point the Democrats should treat the fillibuster for SCOTUS nominees as dead. The question they need to ask is, is the nominee they are currently considering the one they want to be the nominee that ends the 60 vote requirement.

Now does Gorsuch meet this standard? I'm leaning possibly, but I'm open to being persuaded one way or the other.
30
Go away #22. Stay at KIRO where your fantasy person is more viable. Post a pic of a monkey, at least that would be an improvement.

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