A couple of months ago, Democrats agreed not to fiddle with the Senate’s filibuster rules in return for Republicans agreeing to confirm several of President Obama’s executive branch nominees. The last of the nominees was quietly confirmed this week, and you’ll be unsurprised to learn that full-court obstruction reappeared instantly:
With votes slated for Thursday, Senate Republicans were poised to reject by filibuster the nomination of Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) to head a major federal housing agency. Patricia Millett’s bid for a seat on the prestigious D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals also looked to be right on the margin of getting the 60 votes needed defeat a filibuster.
The two standoffs come as a group of other Republicans, led by Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), have threatened to filibuster the nominations of Janet L. Yellen for Federal Reserve chairman, Jeh Johnson for homeland security secretary and a host of other presidential picks.
Sure enough, Watt and Millett have been blocked, and Yellen is being blocked two ways. Rand Paul plans to hold her nomination until he gets a vote on his father’s “Audit the Fed” hobbyhorse, and Graham and McCain are blocking both Yellen and Johnson until they “get answers” on Benghazi.
So that’s that. All of these are perfectly ordinary, well-qualified candidates without any special ideological baggage. Except that they’re liberals, of course. Apparently that’s enough. Republicans are back to war.
