Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, April 7, 2017, on a straight up or down vote.
That up or down vote will happen after Democrats filibustered the nomination by getting 45 Democrats to vote against closing debate.
Republicans then exercised what usually is referred to as the Nuclear Option, but really should be called the Harry Reid Option, to eliminate the need for 60 votes to close debate. It should be called the Harry Reid Option because in 2013 Democrats used that procedure to eliminate the 60-vote requirement for all nominations, judicial or otherwise, other than the Supreme Court.
Keeping the Supreme Court out of the Harry Reid Option was not a principled move by Democrats. There were no openings on the Supreme Court in 2013, so there was no need to apply the Harry Reid Rule to Supreme Court nominations. But in the run up to the 2016 presidential election, both Reid and Democrat VP nominee Tim Kaine promised to use the Harry Reid Rule for Supreme Court nominations if Hillary won and Democrats retook the Senate.
Hillary didn’t win and Democrats didn’t retake the Senate. And Republicans just did what Democrats did in 2013 and promised to do in 2017.
The reaction from Democrats is hyperbolic outrage.
Jeff Merkely, Democrat Senator from Oregon, claimed this was the end of the Republic:
But that wasn’t the tune Merkley was singing in 2013, when he supported the Harry Reid Option.
Democrats were warned in 2013 that what goes around comes around.
Today it came around.
Senator John Cornyn, after Republicans exercised the Harry Reid Option and passed a cloture motion to end debate, nicely summed up the history of Democrat perfidy on judicial filibusters, and how it has been Democrats who have weaponized cloture votes.
[Featured Image: Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid announcing the elimination of judicial filibusters 2013]
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY