Mitch McConnell is mad as hell and he has come up with a plan that will ruin a lot of Democrats’ day. They have been stalling president Trumps nominees by extending every vote to the maximum in debate and hearings. McConnell has a plan.
As majority leader, he alone sets the schedule for the Senate. He is considering going to a six-day week instead of the usual four. If the Democrats are going to insist that all debates go the maximum allowed 36 hours he can go to six twelve hour days.
Not only will this cause most senators from the West to stay in Washington all week, there are 10 vulnerable Democratic Senate seats and Senators will not be able to campaign. That could give Republicans a huge boost in their Senate majority. If they would win 9 out of 10 seats they would have a filibuster-proof majority.
But in order for it to work, McConnell will have to actually pull the trigger and not just threaten it. Republicans only have 2 vulnerable seats.
Republicans need to remember this in case a Democrat ever gets elected again.
While McConnell’s office has not disputed that account, spokeswoman Antonia Ferrier stressed that “confirming the president’s nominees is and will remain a top priority for the Senate as was demonstrated last week,” referring to McConnell’s threats of a weekend floor session last week that resulted in a group of nominees being confirmed.
“We have a number of nominees to consider in the next several days,” said McConnell last week. “The Senate’s workweek will not end until all of these amply qualified nominees are confirmed.”
While Democrats don’t yet have enough votes to completely block nominees, they have used parliamentary procedures as a delaying tactic to slow confirmations.
“The delay and obstruction tactics are historic,” said Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, according to the Examiner. “We have to clear the backlog of nominations. That means we are here — that means we stay here; we should stay here. We’re here as long as it takes to get the job done.”