Thursday, April 06, 2017

GOP Goes Nuclear, Gorsuch Is In

By Douglas V. Gibbs


The collective nature of the Democrats is amazing.  I figured, with the surveillance news, and the evidence we have bouncing around between Evelyn Farkas and Susan Rice, some of the Democrats, for fear of losing their seats in the next election, would cut out their obstructionism and temper-tantrums over the Donald J. Trump victory last November.  I underestimated the resolve of the Democrats to emulate the "borg," and stand collectively together, even as their ship is sinking.  The vote was essentially along party-line, 52-48, for cloture.  The vote to confirm Neil Gorsuch will take place tomorrow.

I am sure the revolution by the Democrats will now be kicked up a notch, and the move to ensure Gorsuch's confirmation will be touted as a fascist move by the Republicans on the airwaves of the liberal left media.  The Democrats and the media (and all of their minions) will fight even harder to force their will upon an American System that was designed to resist the Democrat Party's kind of totalitarianism.  I can hear the top Democrats, now, shouting from their posts..."Resistance is Futile!"

The 60-vote rule is gone until the U.S. Senate decides to return it, but I doubt that will be happening anytime soon.  The division being created by the Democrat Party's emotional and unfounded tirade against Trump will likely never allow any more "can't we just get along" moments again, when it comes to either House of Congress.

As McConnell put it, the Democrats’ move to filibuster Gorsuch is part of a “much larger story” in which the left is trying to politicize the courts and confirmations.

“It’s a fight they have waged for decades with a singular aim, securing raw power no matter the cost to the country or the institution,” McConnell of Kentucky said on the Senate floor. “It underlies why this threatened filibuster cannot be allowed to succeed."

Gorsuch, 49, has a decade of federal appeals court experience and unanimous support among both Senate Republicans and Democrats.  When he was appointed to the Ten Circuit of Appeals, the Democrats were fine with Gorsuch.  Then, and now, Gorsuch's qualifications make him a strong addition to the court for decades to come.

In true socialistic bourgeoisie versus proletariat communist style, the Democrats have been saying that putting Gorsuch on the court will produce more decisions favoring corporations over working-class Americans.

Ever been hired by a poor person?  While I expect us to guard against being a plutocracy, I also recognize that it is a free market with strong competitors and often large corporate manufacturing that creates the kind of prosperity this country has enjoyed for more than a couple hundred years.  Extremism against the private sector where government acts as an enemy to business interests is a one way ticket to failure, which we've seen time and time again - Venezuela being the latest example.

California is probably next in becoming a catastrophic failure through collapse thanks to the utopian visions of the liberal left Democrats.

McConnell and other Republicans have noted that both justices confirmed under Obama, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, had bipartisan support and went straight to a final vote.

The “nuclear option” was put into place to allow the vote on Gorsuch to move forward.  What that means is the cloture rule, which is an internal Senate rule, and requires a 60-vote supermajority to end debate and allow the confirmation to move to a simple majority vote has been done away with.  In the past the cloture rule has been used by minority parties to tie up the confirmation hearing, forcing the President to nominate a new candidate that is more to the liking of those using the filibuster to hold up the final vote.  The U.S. Senate, however, can change its rules by a simple majority vote, of which the Republicans did.  The cloture rule was established by Democrats during the Woodrow Wilson era, and the filibuster concept goes all the way back to the first Senate in 1789.

Republicans voted to overturn the 60-vote requirement for Supreme Court nominees. The Senate followed with a 55-45 procedural vote to set up Friday’s final confirmation.

Republican Senator John McCain had tried to forge a bipartisan deal to avert the rule change but gave up early this week after Democrats said they had enough votes to block Gorsuch.

In 2013, a Democratic-led Senate under Majority Leader Harry Reid voted to end filibusters of executive-branch and lower-court nominees following Republican obstruction of Obama’s choices. That eased approval of Trump’s cabinet this year, with key posts including the secretaries of Treasury, Education, Health and Human Services and the attorney general winning confirmation with 53 or fewer votes.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

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