But he cautioned that doing so “will inflame Republicans and drive them absolutely batshit.”
That’s not a bug - it’s a feature!
Whose Democrats are those?
Republicans going batshit? Gad zooks! I wonder what that looks like! There’s just no precedent…!
This link shows the current vacancies and pending nominations for the federal judiciary. Currently, 63 open, 32 nominations.
http://www.uscourts.gov/JudgesAndJudgeships/JudicialVacancies/CurrentJudicialVacancies.aspx
I say work until December 22nd, and come back on December 27th and work until the new Congress is sworn in. For many senators, this will be their last official actions. Make it count.
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They currently do not have to yield to GOP obstruction on the president’s nominees. They have been deferring to the GOP on such candidates as Murthy (for Surgeon General) because they feared the NRA almost as much as Citizens United for these midterms. But my guess is he will be approved once the midterms are over.
Umm. The Senators elected in November do not take office until January. This is why the post midterm session of the Senate is ‘lame-duck’ – all the same players are in place.
Forget ambassadors. The career staff can handle that. Forget executive branch nominees in general, because someone can be named as acting in the position. Focus on judicial nominations. Those are for life. Republicans get that.
If the new Senate acted upon the nominations by turning them down people probably wouldn’t be too upset. If they simply ignore them, the President can easily say that a GOP Senate is failing to perform their Constitutional duty…and people would be rightly mad. The GOP wants to be in charge, but they really don’t want to do anything if they are. It’s the ultimate conundrum, because they certainly don’t wish to be held accountable for whatever they do…AND they don’t have any plan or program that the people will like.
Good. Better late than never. The radical right wing will come out angry and spitting blood regardless of what Reid does in the LD session.
But do not count the Republican ducks too soon. There are three known scandals (real, not Fox imagined) with Republican candidates right now with another indicted and a former governor convicted of corruption.