Mitch McConnell’s Pre-emptive Nuclear Strike
The Republicans’ tactic to change the procedural rules on nominations is another step toward making the Senate as partisan as the House.
Going his own way.
Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and congressional Republicans are changing the way the Senate handles nominations for the third time in the last three years with a series of votes on Wednesday. McConnell is once again going “nuclear.” That’s the Senate jargon for altering the way the chamber operates to require just a simple majority vote to change the rules, instead of the 67-vote supermajority that is needed now. This time, he’s going nuclear to slash the available debate time on most judicial and executive branch nominations.
Opponents call this breaking the Senate rules to change the Senate rules. In fact, however, much of how the House and the Senate do things depends as much on established precedents, along with custom, as on the formal rules of each chamber. McConnell isn’t breaking the rules – but he certainly is, once again, violating the spirit of the way the Senate has operated.