So I was unaware of this:



The question was would Mitch have gone nuclear. Apparently he did. Lol.

You don't remember that? He went nuclear like the second they got control.

Meanwhile Democrats only went nuclear for other judicial nominees after 5 or so years of constant blocking of nominations that Republicans openly admitted they had no problem with.

But the hacks will call it fair game because the Democrats are simultaneously incompetent and so evil and cunning they control everything.

https://mobile.twitter.com/SenatorReid/status/403615847190921216

“it had to be done”

Fake republicans being exposed en masse from the fallout here.

so I'm trying to understand your hypothetical
Are you asking, would McConnell have gone nuclear if Harry Reid hadn't gone nuclear?
are you asking whether McConnell would go nuclear after Harry Reid did, which of course he would- and did?

In past decades, Democrats and Republicans had a growing strife over judicial nominees being blocked by both parties, and it really hit a boiling point under Bush in 2005 when Bill Frist was preparing to be the first senate majority to go nuclear after Democrats blocked all of Bush's nominees in the 55R - 45D senate. But that crisis was averted because a bipartisan group of senators, the Gang of 14, settled on a compromise where Democrats would allow some judges through and Republicans wouldn't go nuclear. And in the following year, the Gang of 14 averted it again, including allowing Brett Kavanaugh to be become a judge.
Then in 2006 the democrats took the senate and no longer seated any conservative Bush judges for the rest of his term
Then it came up again in 2012 when Democrats held the senate and presidency but not a supermajority, and Republicans were blocking Obama nominees. The two sides of senators and the same bipartisan group as before tried to negotiate a compromise, and initially they had some success in passing compromise bills that avoided the nuclear option and did some horse trading, like Obama withdrawing 2 of 7 nominees in exchange for the Republicans agreeing to approve the other 5, which they did. In the end approving 143 out of 173 nominees, and only filibustering 20 nominees of which 19 were allowed and confirmed before any rules changes
But in 2013 those talks broke down and compromises failed and Harry Reid decided to invoke the nuclear option and finally changed the filibuster rules in order to ram through Obama's remaining judicial nominees
Harry Reid then started pushing through judges without any Republican input beyond blue slips, but he didn't have any supreme court justices to seat so he left that rule ostensibly intact, although obviously a bit farcical since he would have gone nuclear for SCOTUS seats if he had one- but Democrats lost the senate before they got the opportunity, then lost the presidency with a vacancy pending.

When we headed into the Gorsuch nomination, it was obvious that McConnell would go nuclear to confirm him because Harry Reid already had set that precedent and there was no political opposition to it beyond a few stickler senators like McCain who would waffle on it anyway if it was popular enough. So Democrats vowed to filibuster Gorsuch in an anti-Trump fervor with big mobs of protesters turning out (albeit quaint and peaceful ones compared to the current fare). And that was a very foolish move, because with the election mandate and surge of support behind Trump, Gorsuch easily got approved and the nuclear impact was little more than a fart. What had been a contentious issue at the center of political maneuvering for both parties was thrown out the window so Democrats could claim they were opposing Trump, while accomplishing absolutely nothing. And as I repeatedly pointed out then and now, that fight could have been incredibly impactful if they saved it until the next nomination, which surely would be coming. I even pointed to the actuarial tables for mortality rates in those threads on PARD to note the almost certainty of another death or retirement- or two. And when the Kavanaugh hearings turned into a meteoric shitshow and he passed by the skin of his teeth, I think its fair to say that he would have failed had democrats not botched the previous showdown.

and of course all the meanwhile over the past 4 years, McConnell used those nuclear option amended senate rules and plowed over remaining fig leafs of obstruction like blue slips (eat shit franken) in order to set up a production like for lower court judges so prolific it basically resembles the B-roll from one of those TV shows about 'how they make it'
hope yall enjoy civics 101

They are controlled opposition. Nothing more.

The fact we had to go nuclear multiple times to confirm a justice like Gorsuch was all the proof we needed of the lefty (D) extremism when it comes to partisanship. Say what you want about the (D)s but they do not step out of line without severe consequences. it is a hybrid of cult and mafia structure all under the guise of equality which is ironic when their ruling members are all pale pasty privileged lefties.

They passed free affordable universal healthcare unilaterally, fined citizens for not participating, then when the majorities were lost due to their insistence on passing said free healthcare, they went nuclear the first time because “it had to be done”. McConnell responds in kind and yet its on him? lmao thats like blaming USA for the world wars the europeans started because we dared to defend ourselves

The real danger of the Democratic party in 2020 is that they aren't acting in their own rational self interests. I like systems with rational actors where I can predict what they will do and why they will do it, I'm not a fan of erratic arsonists. Who is deciding where the 'D line' is? It used to be a cynical neoliberal establishment behind closed doors. Now all the centrist democrats are frightened by the mob and willing to do anything out of self-preservation. That's no cult or mafia, that's just the reign of terror. The democrats who passed Obamacare on a bunch of lies and misdirection and screwed working people were at least an understandable group of pragmatists with misguided ideology, people I would take in a heartbeat over the arsonist wing of the party.

I said at the start of Gorsuch nomination that the democrats shooting themselves in the foot with the nuclear option was the first consequential act of self-sabotage by a party trying to appease its radicals. And I pointed out how Obama had the option to quell the (comparatively minor) unrest and agitation and conspiracy theorists, and instead he fed their sentiment and used his office to undermine the next administration. The guy who was supposedly the big uniter-in-chief and dedicated to healing tensions went out with those last acts of divisive spite that inflamed washington for years to come. See back at the time I was comparing the movement to the Tea Party as a Frankenstein's Monster unleashed by the left that might drag them a bit to the extremes and unseat some vulnerable incumbents, I was thinking of how the Tea Party had done it, a civil movement but damaging to the Republican center. I had no idea we were going to get a literal arsonist wing of the party taking over the mainstream, devoted to chaos, anarchy, abolishing police, burning businesses, lynch mobbing and full blown terrorism. There's really no precedent for how far this has gone in American history, because at least the leadup to the last civil war was partisanship by rational actors pursuing their own self-interests and compromises, not a party run by John Brown

I was asking whether McConnell would've gone nuclear, not realizing that he already had. He expanded the option to cover Supreme Court nominees, which is an escalation. Putting the blame squarely on Harry Reid for that escalation is preposterous, but I understand it's your partisan framing.

Couple worthwhile Twitter threads...

Whether this situation helps Trump politically:
https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1307300610044297217

Liberal perspective on this whole norms/rules vs power argument:
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1307647282834276352