Give Joe Scarborough a tissue!: DC pundits horrified at rudeness of “nuclear option”

[DonViejo]

Poor centrists: By allowing the majority to govern, Harry Reid made a broken Congress even more broken, they sniff

ALEX PAREENE

Harry Reid, you may have heard lately, invoked “the nuclear option,” and eliminated the Senate’s much-abused 60-vote threshold for executive appointments and judges, the Supreme Court exempted. The response from a certain breed of pundit has been a sort of resigned sadness. “Oh, sure, it seems like a reasonable and justified response to unprecedented obstruction,” these pundits sigh, “but what a tragedy, for America, that this not-actually-that old tradition of allowing a legislative minority to block all executive appointments and nominations for no reason has to end.” Three separate Washington Post columnists essentially wrote exactly this column.

Ruth Marcus’ is perhaps most representative. It begins by explaining, with admirable clarity, exactly why the rules change was made — the previous filibuster deal was supposed to save the tactic for “extraordinary circumstance,” and Republicans had clearly and repeatedly violated that agreement — and it concedes that the Senate wasn’t functioning before the change:

And the argument that deploying the “nuclear option” to change the rules by majority vote will “break” the Senate has long lost its persuasive force. The Senate is broken. It can’t get much worse.

So, that’s it, column over, right? No. The Democrats went too far! And they will regret it.

Judges are different, and this is where the Democrats erred. Their move — unlike previous proposals — eliminated the filibuster except for Supreme Court nominees. The simple reason for subjecting judicial nominees to a higher hurdle for approval: lifetime tenure.

full article
http://www.salon.com/2013/11/25/moderate_pundits_horrified_at_rudeness_of_nuclear_option/

[BootinUp]

1. When will the intellectual conservatives

do something about the tea nutters?

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

3. intellectual conservatives

intellectual conservatives?

What mean these strange words?

[Laelth]

2. I am running out of violins. n/t

-Laelth

[Arkana]

4. Oh fuck Joe Scarborough.

Him and the rest of that pearl-clutching clatch of hens on Morning Joe can go suck an egg with their "politeness" crap. The Rubicon was crossed on that one a long time ago.

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

5. Yes indeed,

I'm with you.

[Paladin]

6. +1. I no longer give Joe Scar the time of day, much less tissues. (nt)

[DonViejo]

9. +1,000

[rock]

7. Can we have Jon Stewart come forward and do his "vapors" act?

[Blue Idaho]

8. Meanwhile outside the beltway...

No one gives a shit. The Congress critters have done such a good job of destroying their own credibility no one is the least bit interested in the obscure rules that allow elected officials to collect three figure salaries while blaming eachother for nothing getting done in our nation's capital.

[Brigid]

10. We need a pearl-clutching smilie.