Turtle boy is pissed and he’s not gonna take it anymore. That’s the vibe that we got from Mitch McConnell’s speech on the floor of the Senate today, in which he complained, incredibly, about “unprecedented obstruction” by the Democrats, according to Politico.
McConnell suggested that he was considering changing the rules of the Senate to limit the time available to debate executive branch nominees and District Court judges from 30 hours to two hours. The new rules wouldn’t apply to Supreme Court nominees or Cabinet appointments. There’s already a resolution that would allow these changes to be made. It was passed by the Senate Rules Committee in January.
“A minority of senators have used Senate procedure to systematically prevent the president of the United States from putting a full team in place,” McConnell said on the floor. “The American people deserve the government they elected.”
McConnell added that he wanted “to restore the Senate’s tradition in this area.”
Do we even need to point out how absurdly craven a move this is from MITCH FUCKING MCCONNELL?!? The man who single-handedly undermined American democracy by preventing even a hearing on former President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland?! THIS fucking guy is worried about obstructing Senate procedure??!?!
McConnell even had to nerve to say that Democrats would benefit from this rule change as well, noting that if the new rules went through, future Democratic administrations wouldn’t be “subjected to the same paralysis.” That sounds a lot like a threat!
To pass this resolution, the Senate would need 60 votes, and it’s unlikely that Democrats will be willing to side with McConnell. But that’s where the so-called nuclear option comes in: McConnell could decide to change the rules of the Senate and allow the resolution to be passed with a simple majority. If he does that, all bets are off.