Daily Kos spoke with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), a leader in the push for rules reform in the Senate, Wednesday morning to get his reaction to the news Tuesday evening that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
could move as soon as this week on rules reform for judicial nominees
Merkley said that in the discussions the Democratic caucus has been holding, including one Tuesday afternoon which preceded the news from Reid's office, that "frustration is enormous" among Democrats over the filibuster of all three of President Obama's nominees. "This is a whole new strategy on the part of the minority to block these nominees," Merkley said. "It's not about qualifications, but about denying this president his nominees." The consensus in the caucus, he said, is that "the argument put forward by Republicans [that the court is underworked and doesn't need these additional nominees] has zero grounds of legitimacy. If that really was the reason for blocking these nominees, they would have opposed President Bush's nominees to the D.C. Circuit.... This is a pure assault on President Obama's constitutional right and responsibility to appoint justices."
More than one senator, Merkley said, who had previously been opposed to rules reform spoke in Tuesday's meeting, telling the caucus they had changed their minds and why. While Merkley didn't want to divulge what happened in the private meeting, public reports from the meeting include Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. Merkley talked about the significance of Sen. Patrick Leahy reaching the conclusion that there was not alternative to going nuclear at this point. Leahy has long opposed this reform for judicial nominees on the grounds that he believed previous Republican concessions meant that a return to the norms and traditions of the Senate was possible. No longer, and Leahy's change of heart, Merkley said, was critical.
Merkley deferred to leadership on the possible timing of the vote that will lead to the reform effort, as well as to the scope of this bill. Senate aides have told both The New York Times and The Washington Post that it could happen as soon as this week, after the Senate votes on the assault in the military amendment to the Defense Authorisation. These reports also say that Supreme Court justices would be excepted from the new rule.
Asked about whether Rep. Mel Watt's nomination to the Federal Housing and Finance Administration would be brought back up, Merkley said that was talked about in the conference and that the revote could lead to reform on executive nominations. He said that Republicans breaking the deal on executive nominees that was reached last July was a huge factor for Democrats coalescing behind the idea of rules reform, and the idea of revisiting the Merkley/Udall proposal for ending the filibuster on legislation at the beginning of the next congress in January, 2015. But he couldn't say how many votes there are in the Senate now, for breaking the filibuster on judicial nominees. That's a closely held secret, but from the outside, it seems unlikely Reid would be going public with this if he didn't feel he had the votes.
Sen. Merkley thanked the Daily Kos community for its long-standing support and agitation for rules reform. He said that his colleagues are both well aware of and astounded by the level of understanding and frustration their constituents have in the issue. He's assured that Senate Democrats understand that another concession by Democrats to Republicans, another "deal" in which Republicans promise they'll play nice next time just won't fly with the grassroots any more. That message has reached Democrats' ears. Now they just have to act on it.