Scott Lemieux

Appalled that there might be a member of the Labor Relations Board actually sympathetic to the interests of labor, Senate Republicans (along with frequent honorary Republican Ben Nelson) filibustered nominee Craig Becker despite his majority support. Given that this is part of a general pattern of the Republican minority blocking Obama‘s appointees, some Democrats have […]

The latest breakdown in the operations of the world’s most farcical legislative body that Paul mentions below should serve as a reminder that the Senate’s crazy anti-democratic rules go well beyond the filibuster. As Mark Tushnet recently noted, getting rid of the filibuster in itself probably wouldn’t accomplish very much: Changing the rule over the […]

Monica brought up the president’s criticism of the Supreme Court, but I just want to add a couple more points. On the one hand, I agree with Jon Chait that the reaction to Sam Alito‘s reaction to Obama‘s criticisms in the State of the Union address has been very much overblown. On the merits, it’s […]

As both a big fan of Tom Geoghegan and a sworn enemy of the filibuster, I wish I could join Kevin Drum in agreeing with his recent argument that the filibuster is unconstitutional. But, alas, I can’t. The case for the constitutionality of the filibuster is very strong: Not only does the text of the […]

For the reasons given by Roy Edroso and Matt Yglesias, I think it’s silly to claim that there’s any moral equivalence between Harry Reid’s use of anachronistic racial classifications and Trent Lott’s argument that the country’s fundamental problems would have been solved if the United States had elected a rabidly pro-apartheid ticket in 1948. It’s […]

Ed Kilgore says most of what needs to be said about Byron York‘s attempt to claim that GOP arguments against the judicial filibuster were acts of High Constitutional Principle. York recycles the argument that, because the Senate is charged with giving “advice and consent” with respect to presidential nominees, the filibuster of judicial appointees somehow […]

After noting the remarkable lengths Republicans went to in order to hold up Obama‘s appointment of moderate David Hamilton to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, David Fontana asks two excellent questions: The lesson here for Obama is simple: If Republicans are going to obstruct even moderate nominees, and if Senate Democrats are sometimes going […]

Ta-Nehisi Coates doesn’t think (and I agree) that Joe Lieberman will pay any price for his disgraceful behavior on health care and that while Lieberman “deserves” to lose his chairmanship, “it’s simply not clear to me that–in terms of passing legislation–the Dems would be better off” if Lieberman got his just deserts. David Kurtz agrees […]