Harry Reid could not have been more clear. If the GOP uses the filibuster to prevent the three vacancies in the DC circuit from being filled, the nuclear option would be in effect. The filibuster would go away. It was Mitch McConnell’s choice.
The choice he made throws the the federal judiciary (currently evenly balanced, with 390 GOP-appointed judges and391 Democratic-appointed ones) to the Democrats. President Obama now has 90 federal court vacancies to fill with simple majority votes. I’ll let Kos take it from here:
In other words, surrendering on three judges would’ve allowed the GOP to continue obstructing the other 87. Provoking the Democrats into eliminating the filibuster, on the other hand, now allows Democrats to ram all 90 through with minimal trouble. And there’s no longer any need to try and find judges that can pick up a handful of Republican votes, so they should prove better ideologically. This will also take the judiciary from a 50-50 partisan split to a 55-45 Democratic-appointed one. And we still have another three years of vacancies ahead of us before we choose our next president.
So why surrender their ability to gum up the works?
Is it a bet that they’ll take over the chamber in the 2014 elections? Not really. A presidential veto would negate the need for minority Democrats to filibuster. So is it a bet that Republicans will take both the Senate next year, and the White House in 2016? Perhaps.
That’s a big bet and one that I will take 100 times out of 100. What evidence can anyone point to that shows Republicans can nominate someone who can win a national election? if there is some evidence out there, I’d love to see it.