Just do it, Harry.
Does Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid mean it this time? Is he really setting the stage for doing filibuster reform mid-session? We've heard the threats plenty of times before, but he seems to be pushing a tiny bit more this time, by
scheduling a vote on Richard Cordray's nomination to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for next week. This could be interpreted as his effort to make the case for going nuclear to his caucus.
“I’m going to make sure he’s going to have a vote next week, and then we’ll see what happens after that,” Reid told a small group of reporters in his Capitol Hill suite Wednesday morning. [...]
“I’m not going to do anything now, precipitously,” he said. “But I’m looking at this very closely…. We’re going to fill that job. Cordray is there now. He’s going to get a vote.”
Reid wasn’t able to explain why he believes (or claims to believe) Cordray will ultimately be confirmed. But he alluded to the possibility that he may pursue a rules change mid-session.
“Whether it’s Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton that’s the next president, I don’t think they should have to go through what we’ve gone through here,” Reid said. “People better watch.”
The Cordray nomination is a good one to use if Reid wants to make a point. It's the most high-profile and public and egregious of Republican filibusters. The vast majority of the GOP caucus, 43 senators, signed a letter to President Obama declaring that they would oppose any nominee he might put forward for the job because they don't think the agency should exist. With this filibuster, they are in essence nullifying a chunk of Dodd-Frank that they disagree with, that is nonetheless the law of the land.
That's a big deal, a very big deal. It should be enough to make 51 Democrats in the Senate say "enough," and convince them to finally act.
Please send an email to your Democratic senator(s) telling them to re-open filibuster reform so that we can have a functioning Senate and government.