Mitch McConnell is on the verge of facing the 18 longest days of his political life

[tritsofme]

25. Nothing. Statutory rules are not enforceable.

It is essentially a gentleman’s agreement between the House and Senate that they will abide by statutory rules. The expedited process for consideration of trade agreements under Trade Promotion Authority is a similar example of a statutory rule. A determined majority of either House could simply walk away.

The Constitution says that each house is the sole arbiter of its own rules and proceeding, if a chamber is handcuffed by the actions of a previous Congress or the other chamber from changing its own rules, this could be viewed as an unacceptable limit on their rule making power.

If McConnell refused to bring up the resolution, and used a variation of the nuclear option to set a new precedent, no court in the world would order McConnell to hold a vote, it would be dismissed as a political controversy or the overall scheme of statutory rules would come crashing down.

I don’t think McConnell is going to choose this path, but in practice the only restraint is norms...