Harry Reid is once again threatening to end the filibuster, and it looks like this supreme political strategist has chosen his approach: threaten to hit ‘em where it will hurt the least (and then not follow through):
Democratic sources confirmed a New York Times report that leaders are weighing a change that would end filibusters on presidential picks for administrative posts, but not for judgeships. It’s a plan that appears to have been in the works for some time. HuffPost reported in May that Democrats were gearing up for a fight around Cordray’s job this month.
(via Huffington Post)
Well, I’m not being fair. It would hurt the Republicans even less, at least at the moment, if the Democrats confined their filibuster reform to filibusters of legislation, seeing as nothing useful will ever pass the cretin filled House. But this is harmless enough, since the Republicans will have succeeded in preventing a two term Democratic president from appointing anywhere near the number of judges that he should have appointed. That’s a shame really, because by and large, Obama’s judicial appointments have been pretty good, unlike most of his administrative appointments (e.g., Jack Lew and James Comey). It’s the judges that make the decisions, and anything decent Cordray does will certainly be set aside by the DC judges, to whose number Obama has been forbidden by filibuster to add. Recall that the Republicans threatened to change the rules on judges, and the Democrats didn’t merely cave, they really quite sincerely caved. Don’t look for the Republicans to cave to similar pressure, if it’s ever threatened. They’ve taken Reid’s measure, as they’ve taken Obama’s. Reid will cave in the end, when McConnell once again promises to be good. Reid’s heart isn’t in it. Collegiality (strange word to apply in these circumstances, but they all use it) is more important than good government.
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