Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is feeling a little feisty these days, and has put his colleagues on notice that the filibuster reform threat, the so-called nuclear option, is still on the table if Republicans
insist on blocking President Obama's nominees to the D.C. Circuit court.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says Democrats are still focused on getting at least one more judge confirmed to the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals—and hinted at more changes to Senate rules unless Republicans stop filibustering “literally everything.”
“People don’t focus much on the D.C. Circuit. It is, some say, more important than even the Supreme Court,” the Nevada Democrat said Friday during a lengthy appearance on Nevada Public Radio.
“We put on three people—I don’t think they deserve to be on any court, but they—we put them on there, and they have been terrible,” Reid said. “They’re the ones that said … the president can’t have recess appointments which we’ve had since this country started. They’ve done a lot of bad things, so we’re focusing very intently on the D.C. Circuit. We need at least one more. There’s three vacancies, we need at least one more and that will switch the majority.”
That echoes
recent comments from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chair of the Judiciary Committee. Leahy and Reid could be priming their own caucus for what's looking now like an
inevitable showdown over these nominations. That's both a threat to Republicans and notice to Democrats that they'll have to be prepared to act, again.
Reid is feeling combative enough to even suggest that he'd consider getting rid of the filibuster on legislation "unless the—these characters who are filibustering literally everything, unless they change." Sounds like it's time for Reid to take up the talking filibuster plan again.
Tell your Democratic senators to keep filibuster reform moving, and to bring back the talking filibuster.