Both sides gambled the supreme court vacancy on the election in a cynical and transparent ploy to shore up support. Both the RNC and DNC knew they had weak candidates unpopular with their base, but pitching the battle about the supreme court meant issues like abortion could motivate people to vote for a candidate they didn't personally like. It was a win-win for both sides, neither wanted to throw a fit and force the issue since they would come off looking worse; democrats would be painted as rushing to get a last minute appointment against the will of the people in addition to losing that wedge for hillary, republicans would be seen as caving to obama and betraying pro-lifers and lose their wedge. So the republicans were quietly allowed to filibuster for a preposterously long time without the democrats raising any objection. Either side could easily have forced the issue.

Schumers gonna need a welcher tag when this is done

This post was edited by Goomshill on Jan 31 2017 07:29pm

and a few jars to hold his tears - he's crying again right now after this announcement.

e: Gorsuch was confirmed for his current position by the Senate 100-0. Now of course, there will be a plethora of reasons why this vote was wrong
also he's the most educated person ever it seems, how is the left going to pass him off as a 'knuckledragger plucked from the trailers by drumpf'?

This post was edited by excellence on Jan 31 2017 07:34pm

2 vials Schumer's Tears, 1 eye of Newt, 2 flagons imaginary russian hooker piss, 1 ramekin of ninja squirrel purse hot sauce, one pickle out of kimmel's jar, simmered for 6-8 weeks in a guac bowl
This will produce you a scouring potion to wipe your servers clean

Great pick for SCOTUS I'm wondering how long this will get delayed

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/5rch8z/neil_gorsuchs_crusade_against_planned_parenthood/

so it begins

He seems solid to me, as much as I disagree with his stances. Hyper-educated, hyper-qualified, I respect originalism, I like him. I think the Democrats will probably vote him in, maybe after a bit of chaos.

Anyone know what exactly the procedure is if the Democrats were to block him how the Republicans could change the laws to get him in anyway?

This post was edited by Voyaging on Jan 31 2017 07:41pm

let the left burn their capital on this one.

Reid already changed the rules so every other executive appointment can be done through a filibuster with a simple majority vote, he stopped just short by exempting the supreme court and saving that on the gamble of whether a vacancy would pop up during obama or not, since he could do the same fight or force the next president to go nuclear. Now for mcconnell its quite a simple path forwards: He offers the democrats a chance to cooperate and follow normal procedures, if they refuse, he passes a motion of closure and changes the rules with a simple majority vote (pence unnecessary) to expand that to the supreme court, then calls for a standard vote, wins on a simple majority, boom, approved.

Naturally he doesn't want to be seen as threatening to go nuclear too eagerly, so he's refusing to even talk about it, but everyone knows its coming, and the democrats look like they have better optics in forcing the republicans to go nuclear even if it means being seen as hypocrites. Theres little reason for them to back down now, so this trains on a pretty predictable course

This post was edited by Goomshill on Jan 31 2017 08:01pm

how many times has he been called hitler?

sorry, but that's bs. garland was already a reasonable pick, more of a compromise than obama had to make, and he did it so the republicans wouldn't block a vote - they still did in unprecedented fashion for almost a year! and dems DID object...
this false equivalence shit is really getting out of hand...