The political dance continues. That is the way it is in a free country. The president takes an action. The leftists find a pliable judge and get a restraining order. The appeal is filed. The process continues.
One of the dance deals with the Senate and confirmations. There are two things which I think are a bit of a two step: Voting nominations out of committee and getting them confirmed by the full Senate.
If you have been paying attention you remember how the Democrats refused to attend the committee meetings because they knew they could not win a vote. Evidently the rules say you cannot conduct business unless there is at least one member of each party present. That makes sense. You don’t want midnight meetings of an inner circle running the government, although that seems to be how most things get done. Remember the Pelosi mantra, “We need to pass the bill so we can find out what is in it.”
What the Democrats did not do was read the rest of the rules. Evidently the rules allow you to change that rule. What is surprising is that the Republicans had enough manhood to make the change and vote the candidates out for appearances before the full body of the Senate. Yeah, team.
The second issue is what is called the “nuclear option”. It refers to the Senate rule that a minority of the Senate can keep you from voting on something unless you can get 60 Senators to vote to go ahead. The original purpose made sense. It was to guarantee that debate would not be cut off and the majority program rammed through without a chance for the minority to state it’s case. Instead you have it used to keep anything from happening. They have changed the way it works. It used to be you could stand up and talk as long as you wanted. Thus one senator had the floor until he ran out of things to say. It was limited by your endurance. Now they have taken the new and improved version. You don’t need to keep talking. All you need is to have 40 party members in resistance and nothing happens. You can go drink your latte or work out in the gym knowing that nothing is getting done. Sweet.
The nuclear option removes this and allows a vote by a simple majority. Under parliamentary procedure you can “call the question” any time. It seems to make sense but keep in mind that nefarious minds can corrupt anything.
I think the Republicans changed the rules in committee as a shot across the bows to wake up the Democrats. I think the message is, “You didn’t think we would change the committee rules. We did. You don’t think we will change the rules on filibuster? Are you willing to take the chance?”
The dance continues. So far the republic endures.
homo unius libri
Dealing with democrats is like trying to talk sense to a rebellious teenager.
ReplyDeleteWorse. Sometimes the teenagers grow up. Of course those that don't remain Democrats.
DeleteGrace and peace