Reid shuts down Republican obstruction

It was a good day for democratic governance. Admit I didn't think he'd go through with it. Happy to be wrong. Harry Reid made history today.

After years of threats and warnings, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and his Democratic majority on Thursday executed the "nuclear option" to eliminate the filibuster for executive branch and judicial nominees, except for the Supreme Court.

Of course, everybody has an opinion but it's probably not going to restore the Senate to a functional body.

The "Reid Rule," as supporters are calling it, does not affect the minority party's ability to filibuster Supreme Court nominees or legislation.

GOPers will still block every bill and I don't think they should ever abolish the filibuster on SCOTUS nominees. Still this is a pretty BFD. By tradition, in the interests of responsible governance and Senate comity, the winner of the election gets to pick his own team and he gets to fill the vacancies on the bench. Thus does our government reflect the will of the voters.

You can read the full text of Reid's reasons for the rule change. This was the most important:

There are currently 75 executive branch nominees ready to be confirmed by the Senate that have been waiting an average of 140 days for confirmation. One executive nominee to the agency that safeguards the water our children and grandchildren drink and the air they breathe has waited more than 800 days for confirmation.

We agreed in July that the Senate should be confirming nominees to ensure the proper functioning of government. But consistent and unprecedented obstruction by the Republican Caucus has turned “advise and consent” into “deny and obstruct.”

Yes, both sides filibustered nominees, but for stated cause. Republicans don't even bother to pretend they have a good reason anymore. Why should they when BigMedia treats it as normal procedure? It's at the point where every filibuster is an attempt to extort policy concessions Republicans didn't win a mandate for at the ballot box. Somebody had to end the madness. Good for Harry for finally giving the Republicans some hell.

Just do it Harry

When last we heard from our intrepid Senate leader he was strongly considering the nuclear option but was giving the feckless Republicans one last chance because he just couldn't believe they would keep blocking votse on critical judicial nominations. Of course, those of us outside of the "greatest legislative body in the world" knew that was a fool's hope. So now having given the GOP yet more time to jam the works of responsible governance we get yet another sternly worded threat from Harry Reid.

“I’m at the point where we need to do something to allow government to function,” Reid said when asked if he would consider using the so-called nuclear option, a controversial procedural tactic for changing Senate rules. “I’m considering looking at the rules.”

Reid said he will insist that Republicans allow up-or-down votes on all three of Obama’s nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals: Patricia Millet, Cornelia Pillard and Robert Wilkins.

He will insist? What, he wasn't insisting months ago? He was just suggesting? Enough of the wimpy threats Harry. Stop flailing and do it to them before they bamboozle their way into control again and do it to you. Do it now, while there's still time to repair some of the damage.

Reid threatens to go nuclear

Yes I know we've heard this all before, but this time Harry Reid sounds serious on filibuster reform.

After a tense exchange on the floor with his Republican counterpart, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, planned to recommend to his fellow Democrats at a private lunch meeting that they should vote to take the exceptional step of barring the minority party from filibustering presidential appointees.

The step that Mr. Reid will endorse, which drew strong objections from Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, would not affect filibusters of legislation or judicial nominees. But it would prevent Republicans from being able to require a supermajority of 60 votes for the confirmation of people the president appoints to cabinet level posts or other executive-branch positions.

Greg Sargent has the details on the nuclear trigger:

“We’re going to file cloture on a bunch of nominations, and those votes will occur next week when we schedule them,” Reid said, adding later that if no movement occurred on them, “we know what’s going to happen.”

According to a senior Senate Democratic aide, this means that Reid will file cloture on the following nominations today: Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Gina McCarthy as head of the Environmental Protection Agency; Obama’s picks to the National Labor Relations Board; and possibly Thomas Perez as Labor Secretary.

These are the appointments the GOPers most want to block in order to subvert the will of the majority. So a real test of the laughable "gentlemen's agreement" Reid and McConnell made at the beginning of the session. Remains to be seen if any of the old geezers have the guts to see it through. As the NYT reports, "Senators in both parties also say they fear it could irrevocably change the nature of the Senate."

One could argue we're long overdue for an irrevocable change in that moribund body.

Predictably, Reid's threat left McConnell spitting out his own threats of revenge on the floor, should the tables be turned in the future. (Warning HuffPo link.) As if that's not exactly what Republicans would do anyway if they ever regain the majority, regardless of whether Reid screws up the courage to make a bold move now while there's still time to pass some useful legislation.

Kill the filibuster before it kills us

I'm one of the last holdouts on this. I've argued for years that we should keep the filibuster to protect the Senate minority. But that was before the entire Republican party's brains melted before our eyes. Now convinced Paul Waldman is right.

The crackpots have taken over the GOP. When they manage to take the majority again, and they will, they will kill the filibuster. My only quibble with Paul is I don't think they'll wait a hot minute. They'll kill it preemptively on the first day of the session. So Harry Reid should just let it die with dignity now, while we still have a chance to get some sane legislation passed.

Give 'em heck Harry

Well here we go again. Harry Reid is kinda, sorta, thinking hard about cracking down on GOP obstruction.

“I’m not going to do anything now, precipitously,” he said. “But I’m looking at this very closely…. We’re going to fill that job. Cordray is there now. He’s going to get a vote.”

Corday you'll recall is the long being held in limbo nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. You'll also remember the GOPers are refusing to allow a vote unless the Dems agree to render the agency completely toothless, unable to enforce any actual consumer protection against predatory banksters.

Harry claims he's going to force a vote next week. Willing to bet it won't go well. [photo via The Moderate Voice]

Harry Reid threatens GOP with filibuster reform -- again

And this time he really means it:

“All within the sound of my voice — including my Democratic senators and the Republican senators who I serve with — should understand that we as a body have the power on any given day to change the rules with a simple majority,” Reid told Nevada Public Radio in a little-noticed interview Friday. “And I will do that if necessary.” [...]

“I’m a very patient man,” he said. “We made changes but the time will tell whether they’re big enough. I’m going to wait and build a case. If the Republicans in the Senate don’t start approving some judges, and don’t start helping get some of these nominations done, then we’re going to have to take more action.”

No Harry. The time for patience is over. Five years is long enough. And no, approving Mary Jo White to head the SEC by unanimous assent is not enough to show good faith. GOPers figure they're letting the fox in to guard the henhouse with that one. If they do the same with the nomination of Sri Srinivasan to the DC District court, and soon, then we can talk about patience. If the gun control bill comes to the floor without a filibuster, then you can give them more time. Otherwise, no deal.

Harry reminds me of the harried parent with unruly, whining kids at the supermarket. The parent threatens them with no candy because they're misbehaving through the whole shopping trip, but then they calm down in the last aisle for three minutes, the parent gives in and buys the candy bar at the checkout anyway to stop their crying. Next time you see them in the store, the whole sorry spectacle happens all over again.

Mitch McConnell: Filibuster reform? To the mattresses!

(But first try the fainting couch...) Mitch McConnell pitched a drama queen worthy hissy fit over Harry Reid reforming the use of the filibuster. He's appalled that Harry, and his “cohort of short-sighted Senate sophomores,” would use some arcane procedural rule to enact changes that would make it harder for him to evoke arcane procedural rules in order to bring the work of the Senate to a grinding halt.

Contrary to Mr. McCon's overwrought wailing, these changes are not such a big deal.

“The point I would make is that I’ve said from the outset is that a test of a good proposal is whether or not you could live with serving under it in the minority,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR). “That’s why the talking filibuster is the right way to go. McConnell has broken the social contract. His team, under his leadership, uses it constantly and silently, out of public sight. Really the proposal I put forward restores the basic elements that existed in the past, and I’m quite happy to live under that structure as a minority. … [That] has been part of every conversation I’ve had with colleagues. … If we’re in the minority and we’re blocking something, we should be accountable to the public.”

Pretty sure, for Mitch McConnell, raising the concept of being "accountable to the public” is about the equivalent to driving a wooden stake through the heart of a vampire.

Harry Reid ups the ante

I take back every mean thing I said about Harry Reid being a spineless, ineffective, hapless little sad sack. Well okay, maybe I don't take it back, because it was true then but I'm just wild about the new Harry Reid -- steely eyed warrior -- now. Every GOPer in America, from the big time power brokers to the angriest, meanest foot soldier in the base has been hurling every ugly smear they got at him and he hasn't flinched. In fact, Reid keeps raising the stakes:

"This person is an investor in Bain Capital, a Republican also, and somebody who has been dealing with Romney’s company for a long, long time and he has direct knowledge of this,” said Reid aide Jose Parra, referring to Romney’s tax returns.

Parra has since walked that a little back:

"I do not know the party affiliation of the source, how long he invested with Bain, or his relationship to Romney beyond the fact that he was an investor with Bain Capital, as Senator Reid has previously stated."

But no matter. There is every reason to believe Harry has a credible source for the allegation. I'm proud of him for standing firm and keeping it in the news cycle. It's a question the voters want answered and Harry is fighting not just the Republicans, but a complacent, cynical media to demand that answer on our behalf. Which is how the system used to work though most of the cool kids on the DC beat aren't old enough to remember it.

And perhaps our concern trolls could ask why Romney won't release information the voters have a right to know instead of hurling themselves onto the fainting couch because Harry is so "rudely" pressing the question. Clearly there's something big in those returns Romney wants to hide or else he would have shut this down by releasing them.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]