The Senate operates on tradition, in many cases, and when a new leader makes changes it can be hard for the minority party.
Just remember, Harry Reid changed the rules and the left applauded him.
So the complaints that Mitch McConnell is running a scorched campaign in the Senate are just sour grapes. They would be doing the same if they had power.
As partisanship increases, so will the tit for tat and only one thing can break the pattern of self-destruction – ending the filibuster.
That is where we are headed. It may very well be a necessary thing to keep us moving forward as a country.
From The Hill: Senate Republicans confirmed a Ninth Circuit nominee on Tuesday even though neither home-state senator returned a “blue slip” for the judge nominated by President Trump.
From The Hill: Senate Republicans confirmed a Ninth Circuit nominee on Tuesday even though neither home-state senator returned a “blue slip” for the judge nominated by President Trump.
Senators voted 53-46 on Eric Miller’s nomination, making him the 31st appeals judge confirmed since Trump took office in January 2017.
Miller is the first circuit court nominee to be confirmed without a blue slip from either home-state senator, with neither Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) nor Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) returning the sheet of paper that indicates if they support him.
Murray warned minutes ahead of the vote that Miller’s nomination was putting the Senate on a “very dangerous path.”
“Republican leaders are now barreling towards a confirmation vote on a Ninth Circuit nominee, a flash point that if it succeeds will mark a massive departure from the long-standing bipartisan process that has been in place for generations,” Murray said from the Senate floor.
Cantwell added that the “confirmation process has, I believe, gone against long-standing Senate traditions, norms, and the role of advise and consent to his nomination.”
It’s the latest escalation of a years-long fight over the blue slip, with Democrats accusing Republicans of trying to defang the minority by moving nominations without support from home-state senators.
The blue-slip rule — a precedent upheld by Senate tradition — has historically allowed a home-state senator to stop a lower-court nominee by refusing to return the blue slip to the Judiciary Committee.
How strictly the precedent is upheld is decided by the committee chairman, and enforcement has varied depending on who wields the gavel.
But it’s emerged as a flashpoint during the Trump administration as several Democratic senators have refused to return their paperwork on circuit court nominees from their home states, setting up a round of fights between Democrats and the White House.
Several circuit nominees were confirmed last year despite not receiving a blue slip from one of the home state senators.
