U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is threatening to drop the “nuclear option” on a rule governing Senate filibusters.
He should carry out his threat if his “friends” on the other side, Republican senators, continue to deny President Obama the chance to fill his team with folks who share his world view.
The filibuster is a legitimate tool that minority members – in this case, Republicans – use to their advantage. It can be used to stop nominees who aren’t qualified or who have political baggage that senators deem unacceptable. It’s been abused by both sides over many decades.
But as the Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard editorial notes, Republicans have elevated the abuse in recent times to “an art form.”
Reid is considering whether to toss out the 60-vote rule to end filibusters and rely instead on a simple majority, 51 senators, to break it. Democrats – and their “independent” colleagues – have 55 votes in the Senate. The rule change would apply only to non-judicial appointments. As it stands now, the Obama administration has several key appointments awaiting confirmation votes simply because Republicans have launched filibusters to prevent those votes from occurring.
Reid says he’s serious. He won’t get any help, of course, from Texas’s two Republican senators – John Cornyn and Ted Cruz – both of whom have been near the head of the pack in leading these filibusters against virtually all of President Obama’s appointees.
I’ve long thought much of presidential prerogative. The president is the one elected leader selected by a majority vote of all Americans. Thus, that individual is entitled to be surrounded by like-minded individuals to help guide and shape U.S. political and governmental policy. Denying the president even an up-or-down vote by invoking dubious and often phony concerns is an abuse of the system.
It has to stop.
Go for it, Mr. Majority Leader.