November 23, 2013

Democrats change trivial senate rule; it's cool, nothing to concern you, citizen. Move on.

Yesterday you may have heard a vague reference in the "news" to some minor change in some arcane senate rule.

Since changes in arcane congressional rules don't usually interest you, you didn't pay much attention.  Which is exactly what Democrats and their media allies wanted.

The change was that the Democrat-controlled senate voted that filibusters will no longer be allowed on any presidential nominees except to the Supreme Court.

Of course the entire usefulness of a filibuster was that it required 60 votes to end one, so banning its use makes it far easier for the party controlling the senate to confirm even goofy presidential nominees. 

This is such a huge change--removing a check on bad actions by the majority party--that when it was being discussed a few years ago it was called "the nuclear option," and the media described it as a horribly abusive thing to do.

But now the media is describing that same "nuclear option" as if it was cool and efficient.

Think I'm kidding?  Here's how the liberal website Politico opened their story:
The Senate’s new 51-vote threshold to break a filibuster of President Barack Obama’s appointees is good news for most of those waiting for executive branch confirmations....
The White House believes changing the filibuster rules — the so-called nuclear option — changes the game on future nominations, allowing it to expand the field of potential choices.
No longer would Obama have to consider whether at least five Republicans will allow a vote to take place; now the president and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid only need to hold together their fellow Democrats — and not even all of them at that.
"Good news."  Allows the White House to "expand the field of potential choices."  Who couldn't be in favor of more choices?

Here's another Politico story lede:
The Senate approved a historic rules change on Thursday by eliminating the use of the filibuster on all presidential nominees except those to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Historic."   Sounds pretty good, eh?

What this change means is that wretchedly partisan or goofy judicial nominees can now be confirmed by a simple majority.
Wow, what in the world could have changed to make the "nuclear option"--which just a few years ago was scary and an unprecedented abuse of power--such good news?

It's a total mystery.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home