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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWTF! "Democrats Say They Don't Regret Making It Easier To Confirm Judges" HUFFPO
Democrats Say They Dont Regret Making It Easier To Confirm Judges
It wasnt a mistake, Sen. Jeff Merkley said.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/democrats-senate-rule-change-judges_us_5af5b263e4b00d7e4c1a24c3
But Democrats who blew up the rules when they were in the majority to make it easier to confirm executive and judicial nominees say they have no regrets about doing so.
It wasnt a mistake. The mistake is to have people confirm judges that are way out of the mainstream and to refuse to be thoughtful about what were going to do the judiciary, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), a lead proponent of filibuster reform at the time, told HuffPost this week.
In 2013, under the leadership of then-Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Democrats voted to deploy a parliamentary procedure dubbed the nuclear option to change Senate rules to pass most executive and judicial nominees by a simple majority vote, instead of the long-standing 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster. They argued that unprecedented obstruction to then-President Barack Obamas executive and judicial nominations necessitated the historic change to Senate rules.
sigh....
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,658 posts)fleabiscuit
(4,542 posts)unblock
(52,165 posts)there is *zero* change that mcturtle, who abused rules to stymie obama's appointments, and who abused rules to steal a supreme court seat, would not have gone nuclear himself as soon as republicans had the senate.
had reid not gone nuclear when he did, there would be even more vacancies left with donnie filling even more of them.
hlthe2b
(102,192 posts)The damage wrought by having these unqualified ideologues on the appeals courts will outlive me.
unblock
(52,165 posts)and do things like stack the courts. realistically, we would need the trifecta -- both houses of congress and the oval office.
but once we have that, we can effectively fix the gorsuch theft by adding two seats to the supreme court by federal law.
my snarky suggestions would be garland and obama the partisan in my would suggest either or both clintons, but constitutional hardball demands that we put younger people in those seats
fleabiscuit
(4,542 posts)and forming big new district court in Nome AK to transfer all the republithug judges.
We also need a new voting rights act.
And progress at the state level as well.
still_one
(92,111 posts)EffieBlack
(14,249 posts)I am so sick of the "Oh you better not do that because then the Republicans will do it too!" As if the Republicans need the Democrats to do something first before they'll try it.
If the Democrats hadn't done everything they could to get President Obama's judges confirmed, the Republican STILL would do exactly what they're doing NOW - only with even more judicial seats to work with
procon
(15,805 posts)The obstacles hindering Obamas efforts to appoint new judges were insurmountable with a Republican majority. McConnell sat on Obamas Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland, guaranteeing that he would never be confirmed. Republicans were united in their plot to leave as many judicial vacancies as they could for the next president...which they somehow knew would be a Republican.
JCanete
(5,272 posts)took the high road and got nobody appointed. Is there anybody who believes the Republicans wouldn't have passed the nuclear option in order to get their judges confirmed?
And, it looked for all intents and purposes as if the Republicans were not going to take the White House. Their field was bleak and absurd. That Trump won was hard to see coming. What we did was wait too long to do this. Republicans would have done it the first time a nominee got held up.
NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)How many Democrats are quoted in the article saying they don't regret it?
How many are quoted as saying it was a bad idea?
Democrats Say They Dont Regret Making It Easier To Confirm Judges
And that is the headline. Pretty clear who this one is directed at.
JCanete
(5,272 posts)NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)Glad that you trust him.
How in the wold did they come to that headline?
True ratfucking with no intelligent commentary in the article.
JCanete
(5,272 posts)left. That would disappoint me greatly.
NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)The article doesn't back it up.
How many Democrats were quoted in the article as having not regretted it?
How many Democrats were quoted in the article as regretting it?
What is the headline?
JCanete
(5,272 posts)he frontloads the whole article with "but democrats say they don't regret their decision." Its already put in to be foregone that they should regret it. That framing is the problem. As you say, the rest of what he writes actually supports the democratic claims that Republicans were going to fuck with the rules anyway.
NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)To be fair, some of them are pretty good. Ratfucking was the wrong word to use. Maybe they were just hung-over when they wrote this one.
onenote
(42,661 posts)During is 8 years in office 55 Court of Appeals judges and 268 District Court judges were appointed by Obama and confirmed by the Senate.
While Trump is nominating judges at a brisk pace, he's got a long way to go before he can put his stamp on the judiciary in the same way Obama has.
After almost a year and a half, Trump has had 17 Court of Appeals judges confirmed, with another 14 pending. And he's had 17 District Court judges confirmed with another 72 pending. If the Democrats can take the Senate, they can slow his roll considerably over the last two years of his presidency (assuming he lasts for four years).
Demsrule86
(68,539 posts)confirm a SCOTUS nomination...why always the hits on Democrats and the Democratic Party?
hlthe2b
(102,192 posts)(Did you not see my "WTF" prefacing the title? and sigh... at the end?)
I share your disgust..