GOP’s existential test: Why they’re really escalating a nuclear option crisis
GOPs existential test: Why theyre really escalating a nuclear option crisis
Republicans aren't just testing Constitutional limits -- they're making a gamble about their own political fortunes
BRIAN BEUTLER
Here are a couple questions with fairly obvious answers. (Spoiler alert, the answers are, no, and no.)
1). If Mitt Romney were president, would Senate Republicans deny confirmation to his D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals nominees based on a specious argument that the courts caseload doesnt merit a full complement of judges?
2). If Mitt Romney were president, and Senate Democrats were reverse court packing filibustering all of his judicial nominees, regardless of merit to prevent him from altering the ideological balance of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, or any court, would Republicans stand for it?
Ive tried to avoid this construction in the past because the case for Democrats nuking the filibuster right now is
substantively very strong, and meta whining about the GOPs relative procedural extremism distracts from that argument.
But I want to make an exception today, because I think the obviousness of the answers to these questions suggests Republicans fully understand what theyre doing, and are provoking a nuclear option crisis intentionally as a gamble on their own political fortunes.
full article:
http://www.salon.com/2013/11/20/gops_existential_test_why_theyre_really_escalating_a_nuclear_option_crisis/