— Katherine A. Ganzel (@KatherineGanzel) April 3, 2017Courtesy of CNN:
Four Senate Democrats announced Monday they plan to oppose Neil Gorsuch, bringing the Democratic caucus to the 41 votes needed to sustain a filibuster against the Supreme Court nominee.
The announcement sets Republicans up to change Senate rules -- referred to as the "nuclear option" -- to lowering the threshold of advancing Supreme Court nominees to just 51 votes from 60.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-9 along party lines to advance Gorsuch's nomination to the full Senate. With Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware, Dianne Feinstein of California, Mark Warner of Virginia and Patrick Leahy of Vermont all saying Monday they could not support Gorsuch,
Democrats reached the 41 votes they needed to prevent the advancement of Gorsuch's nomination under current chamber rules.
I keep hearing that the Democrats are shooting their wad too early and that they should wait for the NEXT Supreme Court nomination which may change its ideological makeup.
I call bullshit on that idea, as I do not think that ANY of Trump's nominees or policies should be allowed to go forward until this investigation into his possible collusion with Russia during the election has been completed.
Trump's presidency is currently imploding and I think that it is in the best interests of Senate Democrats to be on the right side of history when it comes to an end.
Right now the progressives are fired up against Donald Trump's agenda and I would suggest that ANY Democrat who votes in support of his policies or nominees puts themselves at risk of losing their reelection bid.
After all this is rightfully Merrick Garland's position on the Supreme Court and the Democrats should drive that point home at every opportunity.
I have little doubt that in response Mitch "Yertle the Turtle" McConnell will end up using that nuclear option, but that will only bite him in the ass down the road.
Source http://ift.tt/2oCXuRE
