Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tweeted out this warning to Dems who want to get rid of the legislative filibuster, saying “You may regret this sooner than you think”:
The last time Democrats changed longstanding Senate rules for short-term partisan benefit, here is what it got them: Justice Neil Gorsuch. Justice Brett Kavanaugh. And 43 new lifetime circuit judges, the most ever at this point in a presidency pic.twitter.com/lwhqan9gRG
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) August 22, 2019
He’s, of course, referring to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who got rid of the filibuster for judicial nominees during the Obama administration:
Thanks to all of you who encouraged me to consider filibuster reform. It had to be done.
— Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) November 21, 2013
That tweet was followed by a link to his op-ed in today’s NYT where he defended the filibuster as a “core part of our constitutional order”:
Now some Democrats want to touch the hot stove yet again. This time they are targeting the Senate’s legislative filibuster, a core part of our constitutional order. I explain in the @NYT why they would rue that day as well:https://t.co/nLjFPZ104X
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) August 22, 2019
And that we don’t need a “second House of Representatives”:
Our country doesn’t need a second House of Representatives with fewer members and longer terms, @senatemajldr writes. America needs the Senate to be the Senate. https://t.co/x116aUkBiN
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) August 22, 2019
From the New York Times:
“You’ll regret this, and you may regret this a lot sooner than you think.”
That was my warning to Senate Democrats in November 2013. Their leader, Harry Reid, had just persuaded them to trample longstanding Senate rules and precedents. Now that some Democrats are proposing further radical changes to the Senate’s functioning, it is instructive to recall what happened next.
Of the top Dems running for president, only Elizabeth Warren has called for its termination:
Reading Harry Reid’s op-ed between the lines, here are the front-running Dems’ filibuster stances:
BIDEN, SANDERS: Keep it
HARRIS, BUTTIGIEG: Consider scrapping it
WARREN: Smother it with a pillow and throw the corpse into the river
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) August 13, 2019
We warned you before, but they just don’t listen:
HOLY MOLY. Mitch McConnell just wrote an NYT op-ed urging Dems to keep the filibuster, and threatening them if they scrap it. This is how you know it's a *really* good idea to scrap it – Mitch is scared. https://t.co/D4brQJsFqX
— Ezra Levin (@ezralevin) August 22, 2019
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