Democrats Will Filibuster Gorsuch

They now have 41 Democrats on record supporting the filibuster, which means the nomination cannot proceed to a vote, unless Republicans have balls.

Which is a very chancey "unless" clause.

Susan Collins, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham are all major threats to join with their Democrat "friends" to preserve the Democrats' ability (but not Republicans') to block judges.

The most likely candidates in this regard are GOP Sens. Susan Collins, John McCain, and Lindsay Graham. All three were members of the "Gang of 14," a bipartisan group of senators that reached an accord on confirmed Bush-era nominees without invoking the nuclear option in 2005. Other Republicans with something of a moderate streak, like Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Jeff Flake, might also oppose such a dramatic change.

Collins is the only Republican senator to express misgivings about the nuclear option thus far.

"Senator Collins is not a proponent of changing the rules of the Senate," a Collins representative told The Daily Caller News Foundation. "She hopes that common sense will prevail and that we will have a normal process for considering Judge Gorsuch’s nomination."

We can only afford to lose 2 (making a 50-50 tie in which Pence casts the tiebreaking vote).

And we can't really even consider Democrats who will vote for Gorsuch on the merits crossing over to support the nuclear option -- Joe Manchin, for example, has said that while he supports Gorsuch and will vote for him, supports the Senate filibuster and wants to avoid the nuclear option.

posted by Ace at 04:32 PM

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