Happy Sunday all! My Gonzaga Bulldogs are in the Finals, so all is right with the world (Shameless plug). When I was cruising around this morning, looking for something to raise my hackles and give me something to rail about, I came across an interesting story, one with twists and implications that I hadn’t thought of.
We here at the Kos have all been up on our back legs to strengthen the spines of the Democrats in the Senate to filibuster Neil Gorsuch at all costs, and the consequences be damned. Liberal and progressive groups have also pushed hard on Democrats, and there are growing signs that the pressure is working. It is looking more and more likely that Schumer will be able to mount a successful filibuster, and force McConnel’s hand. But there is a new ARTICLE in Politico today that suggests some heretofore hidden consequences, at least I hadn’t considered them.
One of them I had indeed previously thought of, and even touched upon in a recent diary. For all of his bluff and aggressive assurances that Gorsuch will be confirmed on Friday “one way or another”, there is reason to doubt whether Yertl the Turtle can mount a successful effort to nuke the filibuster or not. There are already several GOP Senators who are publicly doubtful about doing away with the filibuster for Gorsuch, such as Bob Corker, Susan Collins and John McCain. McConnel’s inability to whip up enough support for the Trumpcare bill to help Trump and Ryan soothe House fears that they’d be walking a plank in voting for it has weakened him. Ditch has no wiggle room in the Senate. If he loses those three GOP Senators, the rules change vote fails. And McCain was just reelected, Collins doesn’t run again until 2020, and Corker is up for reelection this year, with constituents to worry about, not much leverage for McConnell there
The gentleslime from Kentucky has painted himself into a nasty corner here with his own big mouth. The risk for McConnell is twofold. One, he has promised to ram Gorsuch through, if the Democrats filibuster Gorsuch and he doesn’t push the nuclear button, he loses face, admits he can’t control his caucus, and hands the Tiny Thumbs Diktator yet another major defeat, which will only enrage him further, and embolden Democrats further. If he calls for a floor vote on the rules change, and loses, he may as well resign as majority leader, he is powerless to push through anything of consequence that may put any of his caucus at risk at home. Herein lies the risk, as Ryan has already learned, of ruling by ideology and slogans instead of policies and arguable solutions.
But what if he wins? Almost as big of a win for Democrats as if they block Gorsuch successfully and make Trump start from scratch. Several liberal groups, as well as some Senate Democrats have already started applying public pressure on Republicans to keep the filibuster, using 2018 as a cudgel. Democrats can use a nuclear vote to confirm Gorsuch against Senators running for reelection in 2018, and evidence seems to suggest that it might be a rich field to plow. To quote from the article;
Liberal activist groups are pushing as hard as possible to move scrutiny to the GOP whip count, touting a poll they commissioned that shows 69 percent of all voters — and even four in 10 Trump backers — oppose Republican changes to Senate filibuster rules.
Clearly, the public is sick of games and wants governing and results instead of more stupid Washington political tricks, and they see this as just another stupid political game.
But just like a virgin farm, there is more than one fertile field to plow here. If McConnell succeeds with the nuclear option and gets Gorsuch confirmed, then he and Trump literally take sole ownership of him. The majority of Americans objected to Ditch’s and the GOP’s obstruction of Merrick Garland. Starting with the first shitty decision that the court comes down with, and you can believe that there will be many of them, Gorsuch is an unfeeling corporate toady with no compassion at all, The Democrats can go out and rail and campaign, especially to the people directly affected by the decision about the GOP’s underhanded tactics to put this raving maniac on the bench, and their lack of regard for their constituents.
That last sentence is critical here, in my opinion, because it is all encompassing. For the most part, the American view of politics is simple, there are two parties, Democratic and Republican. They are a unit, not component parts. Look, when an engineer flips a wrong switch, and a nuclear power plant melts down, creating 3 headed cows and a 30 mile quarantine zone, along with widespread panic, nobody blames the stupid engineer, it’s the power company that fucked up. The Democrats will be able to hang this anvil not only on McConnell and Trump, and not only on the Senate, but on the entire GOP. Representatives are Republicans too. We have already seen the angst of GOP House members, calculating just how much distance they can safely put between themselves and Hair Furor because he’s toxic in their district. How are they going to defend an unpopular decision that they didn’t even make, but was made on their behalf by their party, so now they own it too?
You know we live with the choices we make. And right about now, I’m beginning to regret not having taken care of myself better in the first place, because of all of the extra weight I’m gonna put on with those buckets of extra butter popcorn.
Sunday, Apr 2, 2017 · 9:43:10 PM +00:00 · Murfster35
Here is a list of the remaining Democrats that are still on the fence. Five of them are undecided as to whether or not to confirm, and the last two are voting against his confirmation but on the fence on the filibuster.
Mark Warner — VA
Dianne Feinstein — CA
Jon Tester
Bob Menendez — NJ
Angus King (I) — Maine
Pat Leahy — VT
Ben Cardin — MD