Sick of Democrat Stonewalling, McConnell Cancels August Recess to Pass Bills, Vote on Judges
The GOP is sick of the Democrats obstruction.
Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has announced he cancelled August recess so the upper chamber can vote on bills and President Donald Trump’s nominees.
My statement on cancelling the August recess: pic.twitter.com/yyAEUSMVQW
— Leader McConnell (@SenateMajLdr) June 5, 2018
Needless to say, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) approves of McConnell’s decision:
— Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) June 5, 2018
Helpful graphic from @SenateMajLdr and his team about why this is absolutely necessary– https://t.co/X0mTuEcmwU pic.twitter.com/fJx4BLgP9W
— Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) June 5, 2018
Senators will receive “a state work period” the first full week of August, but must come back to D.C. after that.
The Republican senators are happy, but they want more since the work week is “late Monday afternoon until early Thursday afternoon.” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) wants the senators to work on Fridays and Saturdays:
In addition to working into the four-week summer break, Grassley is calling for “filibuster Fridays,” arguing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should force the Senate to stay in Friday and Saturday to speed up confirmation of nominations.
“I’d like 2see #filibusterfridays in the Senate If Dems want to filibuster we can vote on Fridays +into wknds,” Grassley said in a tweet.
“Another summer, another heavy work load NOW is the time to vote on Fridays (even wknds!) to get MORE nominations confirmed Especially judges Help the judicial branch,” he added.
If the Senate can finish voting on the nominees and come to terms on legislation like spending bills, appropriations, defense authorization, and water infrastructure, then the senators can get back some of their recess time.
This is bad news for the incumbent Democrat senators since they will not have the ability to campaign during the month. Democrats have 26 seats up for re-election in November along with independent seats in Maine and Vermont, both belonging to senators who caucus with the Democrats.
A lot of those Democrat senators come from states Trump won in 2016: Sens. Claire McCaskill (MO), Sherrod Brown (OH), Joe Donnelly (IN), and Jon Tester (MN).
[Featured image via YouTube]
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Comments
What was that about the Republican caucus really letting him have it? I knew I saw that reported. Well, if they wish to stand up in public and say what a horrible idea it is for them to do their jobs, they are free to do so.
Make no mistake. The UniParty will use this opportunity to try and stop Trump from renegotiating America First trade bills. Probably they will try and attach riders to existing bills to kill the process.
Too much Lobbyist money is at stake for Congress.
Wow, good move.
Gets as many Trump noms confirmed as possible before the midterms.
Handicaps vulnerable Democrats
(squint) What’s he up to?
I’ve already heard one suggestion “trade concessions with China”. We’ll see.
I never had any illusions about politics being neat and tidy. (If I did, Bill Clinton solved them while I was still relatively young.) Progress is progress.
Fen, I’m surprised at you! The GOPe knows it must pretend to support our President prior to the midterms. McConnell intends to perform the minimum necessary to cover the rino’s behinds.
I remember my football days: That ball belongs to US! We will take it from you and run it down your throats! You can’t stop us from scoring! We will triumph by such a margin that your grandchildren shall remember you in shame!
Too bad that Congress lacks the memory of their promises to the American people.
I expect that upChuck will want to pull a Wisconsin, and direct his caucus to flee, unless there enough GOP senators to constitute a quorum even with no Dems present.
51 senators are required to have a quorum, so if no Dems appear, and the rabid anti-Trump agenda GOP senators (e.g., McCain, Flake, Collins) do not attend, then will nothing get done?
That would be political suicide so close to election time.
So in other words, it’s a great idea.
Chain the rabid anti-Trumper’s to their seats to keep above 51… Just sayin…
Well, McCain won’t be there, so the highest # of Republican Senators that McConnell can produce is only 50, which is 1 shy of a quorum.
Fortunately for McConnell, however, the Senate always presumes a quorum is present, unless someone suggests the absence of a quorum, in which case the Senate takes a “quorum call” to determine if a quorum is in fact present. This need for someone to suggest the absence of a quorum means that, as long as 50 Republican Senators are present, they’ll always have a quorum, since the Dems would need at least 1 of their own members present to suggest the absence of a quorum, and that 1 Dem Senator would be the 51st Senator present thereby constituting a quorum.
So thanks to this neat little Catch-22, it’s possible the Republican Senate will pull this off. (That said, it will require 100% party discipline. No squishes this time, please.)
Thank you. That answers my quorum question.
Flee where? Canada?! There isn’t anywhere in the US from where they can’t forcibly be brought back.
The Killer D’s of Texas, 2003. Fled to Oklahoma.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_Ds
There was an earlier similar instance where they were literally hiding out all over Austin, like refugees. But I forget the details.
Texas politics is nothing if not entertaining. There was a congresswoman trying to pass a bill after she had lost her reelection campaign. The opposition to it was fierce, and during the lunch break one of her opponents went out and bought dozens of those Rubber Chickens and played them on every congressman’s desk in the chamber, and when they reconvened she was taunted about her lame duck status. Don’t hold me to the details I’ve heard it from others who have heard it from others.
Yeah, let’s see a BUDGET produced for each of the government departments before Oct 1 for a change. You know, like you idiots are SUPPOSED to do every year.
Mitch, why don’t you put the Senate in special ‘Non-Voting’ session every evening during that break so any senator who wishes to speak up against a judicial nominee has the floor to rattle on for however many hours they want? Then each Friday after, vote ’em on up since X hours of Senate floor time has been devoted to any objections. CSPAN would love you. And if the Dems object to unanimous consent, vote ’em up anyway.
“Objection overruled. The senator would have had forty hours to state his objections during the week if the leadership in his party had not voted against allowing the special session. Call the roll on this nominee.”
Had to pick myself up off the floor – he actually finally did something RIGHT for the nation !
So far, it’s only talk. We’ll have to wait til August to see if he still has a pair then. I have my doubts.
On the plus side, he has brought up the idea of doing this a while ago. The thought at the time was does he have the fortitude to do so. Good for Mitch growing a bit of backbone.
He’s done a lot of things that were right for the nation. Not saying anything here but to respect #reality.
Aw, c’mon, guys, he’s right on this one, and no insults.
McConnell? He’s betrayed us too many times. We don’t trust him. I wish he was replaced. He’s Establishment (E)
I think she meant Rags.
Oh, down-thumbing irrationalists…???
Where was Gorsuch confirmed?
How ’bout all the other nominees…judicial or not…?
Where did the BILL lowing taxes come from?
Can’t you THINK of anything else good that McConnel had a hand in (while not dismissing anything bad he’s done)?
Benedict Arnold was a great man, but at the end of the day he was still a Tratior that no one could trust. I think we all understand in the real world we have to tolerate some corruption and some foul play, but we’ve given McConnell the benefit of the doubt too many times and been backstabbed for our efforts.
If there is a domestic version of Kim Jong’s Lucy with a football, it’s Mitch McConnell.
As for the down votes, I think they will shrink in proportion to how little you mention them.
I’ve never mistaken McConnell for a “great man”.
I absolutely think he can be trusted. He is a reliable, constant, trustworthy old pol who is in power and knows the rules. You can trust him to be who he’s always been…a canny operator who HATES insurrections like the TEA party. You can absolutely count on him to play the game. You just have to understand the game. I figure I’d personally STRONGLY dislike him. But give him his due.
You make good points Rags, but I just can’t trust him. It’s one of those things where you stopped counting the wrongs long ago because you didn’t need anymore to reach a decision about who he really is. And he will always be Establishment Party to me.
But I’ll make an effort to keep an open mind and see what results he gets before midterms.
The GOP is sick of the Democrats obstruction.
All this obstruction is really going to hurt the Dimocrats at election time, when the MSM starts reporting on what the Dimocrats have been up to!
Oh, wait…
Ace of Spades – I know I’m mentioning this story a lot, but I don’t think our opponents are the Democrat Party. I think the Democrat Party is just the frontman for the leftist transnationalist movement, and the most important political organization in that movement is the American media.
And Disney is the current behemoth of the American media.
McConnell’s move will prevent Trump from making any recess appointments; like maybe appointing a non-sleeping Attorney General?
This is bullshit.
McConnell didn’t suddenly grow a pair of balls. He knows GODDAMN WELL that Trump would fill every single opening with recess appointments and that would make him look like the ball-less RINO sack of crap he is.
On a law blog, this notion needs to be slain like a vampire: a stake to the heart and sawing off the head. McConnell prevailed in a lawsuit against President Obama at the Supreme Court level. McConnell has been blocking any and all recess appointments by Trump through pro forma keeping the Senate open for business. Therefore, Trump recess appointments are dead, dead, dead, regardless of whether the Senate takes the August recess or not.
That is why it is such a shock to me that McConnell has actually cancelled the recess. He has already established that zero appointments happen except through the grace of the Majority Leader. He doesn’t need to cancel the session to prove this. It is the law of the land.
You know, McConnell may have a crafty plan here. (I know, I’m an optimist, but hear me out)
1) McConnell holds the Senate in session in August.
2) The Dems throw a fit, get a couple (R) squishes to join in, and vote to adjourn.
3) McConnell bows to their request, adjourns the Senate into recess.
4) Trump produces a list of recess appointments for every vacant position while the Senators are flying home.
5) McConnell and other Republicans say, “Well, you demanded that we adjourn. Too bad, so sad.”
Holy crap. Frost warnings in h3ll! Ol’ Yertle McConnell does something with which I agree!
“This is bad news for the incumbent Democrat senators since they will not have the ability to campaign during the month. Democrats have 26 seats up for re-election in November along with independent seats in Maine and Vermont, both belonging to senators who caucus with the Democrats.”
Well, these congress critters can stuff it. Trump screwed the tax payers and signed a yuge $1.3 TRILLION budget last March with a double extra side of earmarks.
You got your pork, now do your damn job!
I read somewhere that he did this last year, and the Dems gave in on either 40 or 70 judicial nominees, so they didn’t have to stay.
So if this year is a repeat of last year, great, except as Senator Perdue from Georgia has stated, we need the budget and deficit dealt with, so a concession just on judges should be insufficient.
I wonder what McConnell would sound like if he had lips.
Nice.
As the Tea Party insurgency demonstrated, and Andrew Breitbart articulated: “Culture is up-stream from politics.” As Lady Thatcher said: “First you win the argument; then you win the vote.”
McConnell has done more to hold together the Trump / R-party / T-Party / Conservative coalition than anyone except perhaps Trump. You want a Supreme court that considers what they law as written says … better keep us in control of the Senate. You want any judges that aren’t the 9th circuit … better keep us in control of the Senate.
McConnell and the D-party are winning the politics for the R’s. However much you may want to take it to the other guys, to win the politics you have to at least appear reasonable.
With this “filibuster everything” the D-party of more government is simultaneously demonstrating that maybe we don’t need all that, and that they are unfit to govern. And they inoculated the R’s against the claim that this is purely political: Sorry it hurts your reelection campaigning, but guys, we’ve been trying to do the people’s business for a year now.
Meanwhile, running up to the election, there’s a drumbeat of confirmations — success! and our kind of guy!, bringing up the obstruction to now — doing the people’s business despite those guys!, and undoubtedly spewing by off-message D’s making themselves look anywhere from unfit to crazy. You couldn’t ask for better timing, and The R’s Were Forced Into It By The D’s Behavior.
Un-be-lievable. The R’s used to be known as “The Stupid Party” for their political acumen. Now the D’s are gunning for “The Extra Stupid Party” it seems.
All they’d have to do to clench that “Stupider than the R’s” is make philandering and sexual harassment an issue where to be accused is to be convicted, what with The President With Multiple Rape Accusiations, who Hostile Workplace Harassed an Intern In Office, is still half the face of the party. If his wife would shut up, maybe they could memory hole him, but … well, that’s not happening.
Meanwhile, The Last President and his court squawk from time to time about stuff this administration does, setting up recall of when they did worse. Again and again.
It’s like they’re unclear on the concept: You don’t win by looking worse than the other guy. They are, however energetic and creative, finding new ways to make themselves look bad. Un-be-lievable.
And, yes, I can’t wait for The Orange Crush to start taking shots at the design of the President Obama Presidential, well, now that they have approval it’s not a library any more. And the locals are complaining. And it’s just ugly, and intrusive, and the proposal projects a bunch of jobs in its justification. “Shovel ready” jobs one might say, just like from that stimulus … nevermind.
The idiot D’s will go bonkers on McConnell’s latest, just like they did with deferring the prior nomination. Unprecedented … to invoke The Biden Rule on a Supreme nomination leading up to an election. Except for the guy it’s named after, that is.
Yeah, every judge they force through reinforces the message … how many judicial openings get filled in the next 2 or 6 years? Yeah you want guys like these you better elect R’s. If you forgot that, look at the unanimous “no”, and sand in the gears obstruction from the D’s all summer, into the fall.
The D’s just made those the recurring story for the next 3 months. They could have pulled out of that dive any time in the last year. And they didn’t.
Un-be-lievable.
“McConnell has done more to hold together the Trump / R-party / T-Party / Conservative coalition than anyone except perhaps Trump.”
Gee, does that include the…what…4 times that he openly declared war on the Tea Party? WTF are you smoking?
It isn’t what they say, it’s what they do. It isn’t what they do, directly, it’s what follows from what they do.
It isn’t whether McConnell stands on the t-crate barricade, waving his flag in glorious defeat. It’s whether what he does incents that fractious coalition to hang together. In a world with a 51 / 50 Senate — I’m being generous, and Chuckey’s team discipline, the only way to get anything is for the whole Stupid-Adjacent coalition to hang together. Insisting on purity, and getting nothing, well, there’s a reason the R’s are known as “The Stupid Party.”
Yes, Virginia, sometimes the way to keep an improbable coalition together enough to do anything, is to take a swipe at some part of it … to maybe get them to knock off doing stuff that’ll shatter the whole thing. Yes, Virginia, sometimes you forgo doing one thing or another to preserve your ability to do anything at all.
No Senate majority, the recess would happen, n the confirmations would all stop. It’s also good politics. Mean, mean, meanie McConnell is abusing his majority prerogatives … except for that little issue of 100 clotures. And the filibusters. And the … etc.
/As We Descend Into Personalities…
My personal opinion of Senator McConnell’s personal character, or policy preferences unconstrained by politics … matters not at all. Constrained by politics, he’s doing yeoman’s work advancing policies & practices I’d prefer, which wouldn’t otherwise stand a chance.
I’ll take it.
And BTW, I am pleasantly surprised by how much The Ego In Chief’s official actions don’t stink. I am amused to hysteria that in the main, The D-Party is driving him that way. They will hate and insult him no matter what he does. So, the circus barker who feeds on shallow praise has nowhere else to go but their opposition … the feckless R’s.
I cannot stop laughing.
Maybe “The Resistance” could have co-opted him some. BUT, they went after family, this last week, again. In Trump-brain it doesn’t matter whether it was Nancy P, or Samantha B. Cheerleaders and deniable operatives with bylines are all seen as, well, the same. Trump-brain developed in the fetid swamps of real estate and entertainment industries. In those worlds, that’s how things work.
So, sure, ignore it like water off a Duck (‘s A** haircut.) Out loud. In public. Right now. Meanwhile, there aren’t enough concessions in the world to make that man forget what “they” called his daughter. Sure, he’ll cooperate from time to time, tactically. And every time the option doesn’t cost too much, he’ll cut them off, freeze them out, leave them at the table, spurn them …
Mature? Who knows? I’m not qualified to determine. But observing the man for a week, you gotta know this is how he’s gonna respond to that. On top of every other time they came at his kid, his wife, his other kid, etc.
The “resistance” D’s have guaranteed that they will get nothing that requires The Orange Crush’s voluntary cooperation, for however long he’s in office. Anything they want that he doesn’t … yeah, you got 2/3 there? No? Moving on, then…
McConnell has suckered them into things that blow their future chances in a similar way.
Spot on, but I think you misspelled
the 9th “CIRCUS”. That group of so-
called jurists will go down in history
as bad as the Grant administration. Time
will deal with them, in the meantime we
are seeing just how corrupt our gov is.
All the Democrats have is outrage. There is absolutely nothing to their campaign for the mid terms. They aren’t running on any other issue other than outrage and its turning people off. Well, its turning people off who still retain the critical ability to think for themselves.
Well here is the headline at the Treehouse on this:
On Cue – Mitch McConnell Welcomes Legislation To Block President Trump Trade Policy…
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/06/05/on-cue-mitch-mcconnell-welcomes-legislation-to-block-president-trump-trade-policy/#more-150141
Doesn’t sound like a good move to me.
The power to tariff is the power to tax. Congress lent out its powers to the presidency. If it is displeased with the results, and it is willing to take the political “credit” for defending China against Trump’s tariffs, it can slap together a 2/3rds majority. By all means, Senator, your fans await.
I’ll take on the job of selling rational economics over irrational, capricious, lie-based central planning any day.
This was the reason behind the cancelled the recess, not appointments. Should have included this in the original post.
Without influence in DC there can be no affluence in DC. That’s why McConnell cancelled the recess.
McConnell’s balls must have dropped after Justice Scalia passed. Refusing to hold debate on a SCOTUS nominee and canceling the recess have me partly impressed. Wish he had started standing up for Republicans a few years ago though.
Maybe. Trust but verify. See this, from The Hill:
McConnell open to amendment pushing back on Trump tariffs
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON – 06/05/18 03:06 PM EDT
To all the staff here at Legal Insurrection: Don’t be saps.
If McConnell wanted to get all Trump’s nominees instantly appointed, all he’d have to do is recess the Senate. What he’s done here is the opposite of that.
Am I the only person here old enough to remember what a recess appointment is?!
Now that McConnell has their full attention, it is time to bring S.446 – Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 up for a vote:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/446
33 Senate seats are up for election in November. Let them be on record with their votes on s.466 to help the voters decide.
McConnell took some heat in 2017 for the bogus shenanigans he used to claim the Senate was ‘in session’ when they were clearly on vacation. He use some BS rules so that Trump could not make recess appointments, and he was called out on it with no good defense.
.
So this year, he’s had to change tactics. But the end result is the same. He’s working ‘over time’ to prevent Trump from making recess appointments. Watch the end result. The pace of appointments will not increase. Recess appointments will again be thwarted. Mitch McConnell. Liberal Democrat. Can’t tell them apart.
.
THANKS KENTUCKY!
This BS rule was the result of a famous Supreme Court victory against President Obama. Show some respect. If it is the opinion of the Senate that its advice and consent should be withheld en masse from the “new” Trump administration, that is its decision, and it should be praised or condemned on the merits of that decision.
Recess appointments were being thwarted anyway because McConnell wants that leverage hanging over the President. So be it. It’s not like any of us can do anything about it.
Pffsssht… McConnell is ANTI TRUMP
He’s not helping Trump
AT ALL
Not true.
Mr. Establishment and McConnell work together all the time.
=========================================
They hatched a plan two days before the May 8 primary when Trump called McConnell with a simple question: What can I do to help?
McConnell advised the president that he didn’t need to endorse either of Blankenship’s two leading mainstream Republican opponents. Both could defeat Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III, McConnell reasoned.
“And so he said, ‘Well what if I just make the case that Blankenship would lose in November?’ ” McConnell recalled. “And I said, that’d be great.”
http://jewishworldreview.com/0518/sullivan052318.php3
I bet that burns some, huh…???
As we’ve quickly come to see (as of 6/6/18), Quisling McConnell is again feathering his own nest, not his country’s. Once in a while, the POS tries to hide his real colors, but he fools no one worth fooling.
Dump the rat along with Ryan.
How McConnell and Chao used political power to make their family rich:
https://nypost.com/2018/03/17/how-mcconnell-and-chao-used-political-power-to-make-their-family-rich/
Saaaaaay…
Isn’t that Chao person part of the T-rump cabinet…???
Wow. What does all that corruption tell us about the guy who chose her and sustains her in office?