Obama pleads with the Degenerates for restraint on filibusters of nominees....sigh

[Bill USA]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/14/obama-filibuster_n_2878002.html?ref=topbar

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama made a plea to Republican senators in their private meeting Thursday to ease up on their filibusters of his nominees, but he appears to have gotten a cool reception.

"The president made the pitch that it would be useful to his administration if nominees were more quickly confirmed," said Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) after the president spent more than an hour chatting with the GOP caucus as part of his "charm offensive."

But it seems that Republicans will not relent on bogging down nominees, and also do not agree they are obstructing Obama's picks.

"I think the facts, particularly on judicial nominations, [show] our record is better than [in] other administrations, as far as one party approving the judicial nominations of a differeint party's president," Moran said.
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Senate Dems Weigh Consequences For GOP Filibusters Of Key Nominees
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/03/senate-dems-weigh-consequences-for-gop-filibusters-of-key-nominees.php

Senate Democratic leaders have engaged in preliminary discussions about how to address Republican procedural obstruction, according to a senior Democratic aide, reflecting an awareness that key administration and judicial vacancies might never be filled, and that a watered-down rules reform deal the parties struck early this Congress has failed.

“The general agreement was that Republicans would only filibuster nominees in the case of extraordinary circumstances, and once again Republicans are expanding the definition of that term to make it entirely meaningless,” the aide said.

The source said conversations are still too preliminary for Democrats to lay out publicly potential avenues of recourse just yet. And the last thing leaders want is to create the expectation that they will change the filibuster rules in the middle of the current Senate session. But they are occurring in the wake of a series of GOP filibusters of top nominees, including a cabinet secretary (Chuck Hagel), the CIA director (John Brennan), and a federal judicial nominee (Caitlin Halligan) whom Republicans have effectively blocked from confirmation to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for years.

Halligan is a career government lawyer with broad support among leading conservative and liberal lawyers. But Republicans have redefined “extraordinary circumstance” in her case to mean her authorship of a single brief for her now-former boss, then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, which earned her powerful enemies at the National Rifle Association.
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[freshwest]

1. 'Degenerates' is the perfect word.

[southern_belle]

2. assholes!

I wish Harry Reid would grow a spine.

[monmouth3]

3. You would never know he won an election would you?

[blkmusclmachine]

4. Weak, weak, weak.

[davidpdx]

5. The Ds fucked themselves when they settled for less than the reforms being offered by Merkley

I know Merkley won't say it to Reid, but I will "I told you so".