55 to 45 for cloture on Gorsuch

3 DEMs voted for Cloture on Gorsuch:
Donnelly
Heitkamp
Manchin


the Senate has now limited debate to 30 hours, which will take us to around 7 p.m. tomorrow evening.

Good. Push him through and get him on the bench for the last few cases this session.

They will also invoke the "Reid Rule" to limit discussions on executive nominees to 8 hours, down from the current 30, to break the logjam in getting Trump's appointees actually in office.

Ron Wyden D. Oregon going on about "Secret Law"

Da fuq?

quote:

Originally posted by Shaql:
Ron Wyden D. Oregon going on about "Secret Law"

Da fuq?

He's a bit unbalanced...

slightly OT, but if you want to remind yourself why getting President Trump elected was a good thing, there is this:

http://www.politico.com/story/...supreme-court-236925

As White House pushes to confirm Neil Gorsuch, Trump readies lower court picks as they await the next high court vacancy.

After Donald Trump wrapped up his first speech to Congress and worked his way through the crowd, he lingered on his handshake with Anthony Kennedy, the 80-year-old Supreme Court justice.

The boom mics picked up their seemingly private conversation.

“Say hello to your boy,” Trump said, “Special guy.”

“Your kids have been very nice to him,” Kennedy replied.

“Well,” Trump said, “they love him, and they love him in New York.”

While the White House is focused this week on shepherding Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, through the Senate confirmation process, the president and his team are obsessed with the next possible vacancy.

The likeliest candidate is Kennedy, who has sat at the decisive fulcrum of the most important Supreme Court cases for more than a decade. Replacing him with a reliable conservative would tip the court to the right, even if no other seat comes open under Trump — whose team has taken to exploring every imaginable line of communication to keep tabs on the justice and to make him comfortable as he ponders a potential retirement.

But as they wait for a decision they cannot control, White House officials have already set in motion plans to fill the more than 100 lower court vacancies, including more than 10 percent of the crucial seats on various U.S. Courts of Appeals, in a bid to tug America’s courts in a more conservative direction for decades to come.

Trump took the unusual step on the campaign of producing a public list of 21 possible candidates for the Supreme Court. That pool of judicial talent — in particular, younger judges serving on state supreme courts — are now the front-runners to fill top federal court vacancies, according to three people involved in Trump’s judge-selection process.

“Funny how that happened,” said a person involved in Trump’s judicial selection process. “If they’re on a list of prospects for the Supreme Court, they’re sure as hell eligible for the Court of Appeals.”

More such court picks are already in the pipeline. “Some of those are in FBI background checks,” a second top-ranked White House aide said on Friday, a final step before being nominated.

While appellate court appointments receive only a fraction of the attention given to Supreme Court nominees, they are the final arbiter for the vast majority of federal cases.


“The Supreme Court only hears about 80 cases a year,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, himself a former state Supreme Court justice in Texas. “So where all the action is — is at the trial court and circuit court level. So it’s very important, and we’re working hard with the administration to vet nominees for those courts right now.”

NBC basically said the obstructionist demoRAT assholes couldn't find one thing wrong with Gorsuch, besides the fact he was nominated by President Trump. Shocker.

Nuke those demoRATS.

awesome

Flashback: When Dems Loved the Nuclear Option

When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid triggered the nuclear option for most presidential appointees in 2013, Democrats were ecstatic.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes cheered the move as “an affirmative win for democracy,” while his colleague Rachel Maddow gushed: “This is a huge freaking deal. This is like 3-inch headlines. This is like people who don’t even care about politics really ought to care about this!”

On CNN, political analyst Paul Begala praised Reid's maneuver, explaining it was necessary because Republicans had “so abused” the filibuster that Democrats couldn't take it anymore. Ron Brownstein, also on CNN, hailed the decision as a forward-thinking move: “The idea of requiring a super majority for the president to appoint his nominees just is anachronistic.”

The only host who showed any hesitance was MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, who admitted that he had been "intimidated" by Mitch McConnell's threat (that they would regret it) because like "the traditionalists in the Senate, I was like afraid what happens when the other side has the power."


He said he came to his senses when he realized that "of course they have got to do this, because in fact, when the Republicans have power, and the Republican presidency, the Democrats in the Senate would not be attempting to use the filibuster this way to that degree anyway...."

https://pjmedia.com/video/flas...-the-nuclear-option/

^^^^ that's ancient history and all. We are talking about today, and for today, it means the end of the world.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
I call it The Reid Protocol....

Good one.

And I am not going to cry over the loss of the filibuster, since it is used in the most anti-democratic way possible, short of an actual coup.

Want to understand the series of roll call votes and procedural maneuvering in the Senate this morning?

Blow by blow guide.

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
Want to understand the series of roll call votes and procedural maneuvering in the Senate this morning?

That is beyond ridiculous. (Not you, the theatrics)

I always enjoy finding stories point out what an appalling hypocrite Pocahontas is.

Here is one by Guy Benson showing what a duplicitous hypocrite she is and has been.

Heh, heh, heh.

Hopefully by this time tomorrow, Justice Gorsuch will have been sworn in by Vice President Pence.

Democrats will sulk all weekend and beyond.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Hopefully by this time tomorrow, Justice Gorsuch will have been sworn in by Vice President Pence.

Democrats will sulk all weekend and beyond.

The vote can't take place until close to 7 pm EDT. I have no idea when the swearing in will occur.

Folks I am here to eat a big helping of crow.


I was wrong. I am happy to be wrong by the way. McConell did what I didn't think they had the balls to do. Going to have a nice Lagavulin tonight to celebrate.

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
Want to understand the series of roll call votes and procedural maneuvering in the Senate this morning?

Blow by blow guide.

Thanks, JAllen.

They aren't really theatrics. Them's the rules. And the rules make sure everything is done properly and not like in Idi Amin's Uganda.

Most of the Democrat Senators are hypocrites on the filibuster issue. They employed their nuclear bomb when it suited and now are crying huge crocodile tears. I only worry that voters won't remember that.

Well there's Schmuck Schumer's first beat down, may there be lots more!