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How far down Democratic Senate leadership do we have to go to get a Senate Majority Leader who remembers what Mitch McConnell did to UTTERLY DISEMPOWER the minority for the past 4 years?
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. @SenSchumer @SenWarren @SenAmyKlobuchar @SenBooker
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. @SenSchumer @SenWarren @SenAmyKlobuchar @SenBooker
New organizing res: NO EQUAL POWER. This isn't 2001
What Dem Senator will be responsible for torpedoing control of the Senate by refusing to eliminate the anti-democratic, white supremacist filibuster imposed last century? Does Manchin want to own that? https://twitter.com/chargrille/status/1351682503363289090
What Dem Senator will be responsible for torpedoing control of the Senate by refusing to eliminate the anti-democratic, white supremacist filibuster imposed last century? Does Manchin want to own that? https://twitter.com/chargrille/status/1351682503363289090
Dems represent about 42 MILLION more Americans in the Senate. Giving away our power to Mitch McConnell would be an unconscionable & substantively unfair betrayal of your constituents, @SenateDems. https://twitter.com/chargrille/status/1352126580412170242
"the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees was considered so sacred that Senate Democrats refused to touch it...Republicans, however, began floating a rules change for the Supreme Court as soon as they took the majority in 2015."
"McConnell had already laid the ground work to invoke the nuclear option, which needs the support of just 51 senators...even moderates [sic] like Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska opted to hit the nuclear button."
"Republicans quickly sought a unilateral change to the Senate rules, the so-called "nuclear option" that eliminates the 60-vote barrier for Supreme Court nominees [ending] another vestige of bipartisanship...After the vote, McConnell was seen high-fiving Sec'y for the Majority"
"Between 2009 & 2013, McConnell’s Senate Republicans blocked 79 Obama nominees. In the entire history of the United States until that point, only 68 presidential nominees had been blocked."
McConnell also used a bare GOP majority to cut the time for debating Trump’s court appointees from 30 hours to 2 - in order to enable Republicans to ram through more Trump judges of course. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/06/senate-nuclear-option-neil-gorsuch-supreme-court
In order to ram through the destruction of Obamacare over a Democratic filibuster, Republicans turned to budget reconciliation, which requires a simple majority vote so long as the bill is limited to spending, taxes and the deficit. Only McCain's last-minute no saved health care.
McConnell early in 2017 signaled his willingness to abuse his authority to silence even minority *speech* on the floor. ( @ewarren) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/08/the-history-of-the-senates-rule-19-suggests-it-is-very-loosely-enforced/
"Republicans set up a dubious process in which their political allies decided which Bush White House documents involving Kavanaugh would be disclosed...an unprecedentedly partisan Supreme Court vetting process. But McConnell [& GOP Senators] didn’t care. https://www.rollcall.com/2020/09/22/the-trump-mcconnell-doctrine-bomb-them-before-they-bomb-us/
“He’s destroyed the orderly process of selecting judicial nominees,” Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, said of McConnell. “The worst part is he’s shaken the trust that members of the Senate had for one another & the mutual respect"
Remember this? https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/454967-mcconnell-under-fire-for-burying-election-security-bills-in-legislative-graveyard
Then there was the refusal to give any relief to the American people during the year of COVID death & destruction.
The entire term, McConnell refused to even negotiate with the minority on bipartisan bills or House bills. He made Congress Trump's slave. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/20/how-mitch-mcconnell-became-trumps-enabler-in-chief
The entire term, McConnell refused to even negotiate with the minority on bipartisan bills or House bills. He made Congress Trump's slave. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/20/how-mitch-mcconnell-became-trumps-enabler-in-chief
Remember how McConnell prevented any evidence or real of Trump's impeachment hearings in the Senate?
He betrayed his oath to the Constitution, in order to deprive the minority of a Senate trial process, & keep a violent, lying dictator in power. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-impeachment-acquittal-trial-mitch-mcconnell-constitution-a9311596.html
He betrayed his oath to the Constitution, in order to deprive the minority of a Senate trial process, & keep a violent, lying dictator in power. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-impeachment-acquittal-trial-mitch-mcconnell-constitution-a9311596.html
Then, of course, refusing to give Obama's SCOTUS nominee a hearing for nearly a year in 2016, but ramming through Amy Coney Barrett AS AMERICANS VOTED in 2020.
“This is what Mitch was made for: filling the Supreme Court seats,” Trump said. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/oct/25/mitch-mcconnell-amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-republicans-democrats-mike-pence-covid
“This is what Mitch was made for: filling the Supreme Court seats,” Trump said. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/oct/25/mitch-mcconnell-amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-republicans-democrats-mike-pence-covid
McConnell: “A lot of what we’ve done over the last four years will be undone sooner or later by the next election,” the majority leader said on the Senate floor. “They won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come.” https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/27/no-apologies-mcconnell-barrett-success-country-432828
"Under President Barack Obama, McConnell deployed a hard-line strategy of opposition...Would he deploy those same tactics if Biden is president in January?
“That’s a good thing to discuss the day after the election,” he said. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mitch-mcconnell-the-man-who-broke-america/2017/04/07/8e12f1d8-1bbd-11e7-9887-1a5314b56a08_story.html
“That’s a good thing to discuss the day after the election,” he said. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mitch-mcconnell-the-man-who-broke-america/2017/04/07/8e12f1d8-1bbd-11e7-9887-1a5314b56a08_story.html
"In his quest to put a right-wing majority on the courts for the next generation, the majority leader has attacked Senate traditions with a wrecking ball."
“Judges are the Super Bowl,” added Sen. Shelley Moore Capito ( http://R-W.Va .). “And he’s been winning."
“Judges are the Super Bowl,” added Sen. Shelley Moore Capito ( http://R-W.Va .). “And he’s been winning."
Newsflash: McConnell's strategy for his entire career has been to obstruct Dem governance.
"What McConnell is doing to the last vestiges of comity in the Senate brings to mind that Vietnam line: “We had to destroy the village in order to save it.” " https://www.rollcall.com/2020/09/22/the-trump-mcconnell-doctrine-bomb-them-before-they-bomb-us/
"What McConnell is doing to the last vestiges of comity in the Senate brings to mind that Vietnam line: “We had to destroy the village in order to save it.” " https://www.rollcall.com/2020/09/22/the-trump-mcconnell-doctrine-bomb-them-before-they-bomb-us/
It didn't even end after Trump & GOP congressmen/women sent an armed insurrection to attack, kill, & ransack our Capitol.
McConnell closed the Senate to the usual confirmation hearings for Biden's nominees. https://twitter.com/chargrille/status/1352322481114136576
McConnell closed the Senate to the usual confirmation hearings for Biden's nominees. https://twitter.com/chargrille/status/1352322481114136576
I forgot about McConnell/Grassley's outright & unilateral destruction of 100+ year blue slip practice on nominations.
Never had any nominee been confirmed without blue slips from both home state senators.
GOP blocked 18 of Obama's nominees w/blue slips. https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-10-11/mcconnell-to-end-senates-blue-slip-tradition
Never had any nominee been confirmed without blue slips from both home state senators.
GOP blocked 18 of Obama's nominees w/blue slips. https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-10-11/mcconnell-to-end-senates-blue-slip-tradition
"That was the ironclad policy applied by the last Democratic chairman...heartening to Senate traditionalists. But it gave Republicans significant power to block Obama’s choices & keep seats open...one reason why Trump had so many judgeships to fill." https://www.rollcall.com/2018/05/30/gop-slips-past-another-senate-custom-and-democrats-turn-blue/
"During the Obama Administration, Republicans blocked 18 judicial nominees through blue slips.
During the Obama Administration, there were zero exceptions to the rule that both home state senators must approve a judicial nominee." https://www.afj.org/article/mcconnell-blue-slip-flip-flop-is-sheer-hypocrisy/
During the Obama Administration, there were zero exceptions to the rule that both home state senators must approve a judicial nominee." https://www.afj.org/article/mcconnell-blue-slip-flip-flop-is-sheer-hypocrisy/
Kentucky’s McConnell and Iowa’s Grassley are GOP's two longest-serving senators.
"Both have been unabashed in asserting their right to have a special say over who from their states gets chosen for judgeships...[s]nd both continue to cultivate reputations as institutionalists"
"Both have been unabashed in asserting their right to have a special say over who from their states gets chosen for judgeships...[s]nd both continue to cultivate reputations as institutionalists"
