McConnell claims votes to bust Supreme Court filibuster

While Senate Republicans mull nuking the filibuster rules for Supreme Court nomination, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that the 60-vote threshold would be maintained for legislation. At the moment, it looks like only 55 senators will vote for Gorsuch.

While Democrats have enough votes to carry out a true filibuster that actually would delay a vote, McConnell said Wednesday that Republicans, who hold a 52-48 majority, have enough votes to overcome that filibuster if they use the nuclear option and move to a final confirmation vote Friday. The additions give Democrats the 41 votes needed for a filibuster to demand Gorsuch receive the 60 votes required by Senate rules. But rather than let the Democratic obstruction stand, McConnell and Republicans plan to enact a unilateral rules change to eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.

But Republicans said President Donald Trump’s choice to fill the seat left empty by the February 2016 death of Justice Antonin Scalia is eminently qualified and should be approved.

Republicans had repeatedly declared Democrats were breaking the rules to change the rules, and McConnell warned specifically that Democrats were about to end “one of the most cherished safeguards of liberty in our government-the right of a political minority to have a voice”.

Shaheen said she does believe Democrats would be willing to consider a different nominee from Trump, but “it depends on who that nominee is”. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. Unlike every other time in USA history when there was a vacancy during an election year and the Senate acted, we’re not going to act. Pacific time Wednesday after giving what his staff said was one of the 10 longest speeches in Senate history.

The move to change venerable Senate rules reflects an intensifying of the already-toxic partisanship in Washington since Trump took office in January.

SERFATY: But Democrats have been emboldened after Republicans refuse to hold a hearing a year ago for President Obama’s Supreme Court justice pick Merrick Garland.

Democrats meanwhile argue that Gorsuch is outside the mainstream and that Republicans should not expect Dems’ approval after what the GOP did to Garland a year ago.

LINDSEY GRAHAM: The judges become more ideological because you don’t have to reach across the aisle to get one vote any longer. Is it worth a Senate that will have even less reason to come to a bipartisan consensus?

“If it’s necessary in order to get him confirmed, I may have to vote that way, but I certainly don’t want to”, Collins told reporters Monday night.

“I am open to conversations about how we might preserve the filibuster”.

Mr. Merkley has little power to stop the ultimate outcome in the case of Judge Gorsuch, meaning his long floor speech is almost entirely symbolic.