**Written by Doug Powers
Harry Reid will try to pin the blame for this epic backfire on the Koch brothers, but he can’t hide from his real legacy, or its entertainment value:
Senate Democrats are eager to make Donald Trump pay a political price for nominating staunch conservatives to fill out his Cabinet, hoping to exact revenge for the GOP’s stubborn opposition to President Barack Obama’s nominees. But there is little they can do about it — and some top Democrats are now coming to regret it.
That’s because Senate Democrats muscled through an unprecedented rules change in 2013 to weaken the power of the minority party to filibuster Cabinet-level appointees and most judicial nominees, now setting the threshold at 51 votes — rather than 60 — to overcome tactics aimed at derailing nominations.
[…]
“I do regret that,” said Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a Democrat who voted for the rules change three years ago. “I frankly think many of us will regret that in this Congress because it would have been a terrific speed bump, potential emergency break, to have in our system to slow down nominees.”
[…]
Some Democrats realize they’ve made life harder for themselves.“In specific circumstances, we may regret that we can’t block a nomination,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut.
[…]
One person who seems to be having buyer’s remorse over the change in filibuster rules: Sen. Chuck Schumer, the incoming Democratic leader. Schumer told The Washington Post last month that he privately lobbied Senate Democrats in 2013 to maintain the 60-vote threshold for Cabinet-level nominees, but: “I didn’t prevail.”
Reid’s 2013 “nuclear option” has turned out to be the sequel to his exercise band accident, except this one’s knocked out the entire Democratic Party. Dingy Harry bragged about it three years ago:
This is the sound Senate Dems will hear as Harry Reid walks out the door for the final time:
I don’t know why Senate Dems would be upset that they can’t slow down or block any Trump nominees, because they think that “obstruction” is unpatriotic. Oh wait, that’s only when the president is a Democrat.
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
