Harry Reid is scheduling a vote anyway

[donheld]

http://bit.ly/14VqFj9

he's ignoring the filibuster

When Harry Reid failed to push for more aggressive filibuster reform, some on the left called it caving. That argument fell apart when the attempt to block Chuck Hagel was thwarted. When the GOP attempted to block the nomination, Reid used the new set of rules to simply ignore them, and the vote to confirm will be held on Friday. And he is continuing with that tack, now preparing to put the vote for Brennan on the schedule, ignoring attempts to block the vote.

As Addicting Info noted before, the change to the rules in the United States Senate were subtle, but they held the promise of preventing the most egregious abuses of the system. Reid is demonstrating precisely why he is the Senate Majority Leader, by using the new rules put into place by a 86-9 and 78-16 vote. Now to block either nominee, the Republican obstructionists will need to do the unthinkable: actually perform a filibuster on a nominee. Reid is no fool, and the system put into place now puts the spotlight directly on the Republican obstructionists. Unless they are willing to dance in that spotlight, they have lost the ability to block nominations.

[unblock]

1. sounds great, if true. but then, what was the point of the cloture vote?

[Tx4obama]

4. See comment #3. n/t

[napi21]

2. That's grezat news, if it works!

I never really heard what the nuances in the new Senate Rules were...I'd bet very few of us did. I question why Reid didn't publicize them more because of all the heat he's been taking for being a chickern s**t?

[Tx4obama]

5. See comment #3. n/t

[Tx4obama]

3. No. If you read the hyer-link in the article it says that he scheduled the Friday vote Feb 13th...

... that is before the cloture vote today failed.

Reid is ignoring the 'holds', but not the results of the cloture/(filibuster) votes.

Reid will bring a cloture vote to the floor of the senate for Brennan (ignoring the 'hold'), but if the cloture vote doesn't get 60 votes then it will fail also and will have to wait for a full confirmation vote just like on Hagel.


February 13, 2013
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/02/13/senate_schedules_friday_vote_on_hagel.html


Also...
Aide: Reid won't honor hold against Brennan
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/13/16952832-aide-reid-wont-honor-hold-against-brennan?ocid=twitter

[unblock]

6. ah, ok; so in a way this is old new.

but it is starting to look effective. republicans can no longer hide behind an anonymous hold, and have to go on record saying "no" to a cloture vote. it's starting to look like this is having the intended effect, as a number of republicans are suggesting they'll switch to "yes" next week....

stay tuned....