The Michael Mukasey nomination vote last night at 11:04 pm has turned into a fiasco for the Democratic Party. Senator Leahy's office was "surprised" by the scheduled vote, as were many other Democrats, including Senators Clinton, Obama, Biden, and Dodd, who were campaigning for President in other states.
The surprise vote was held specifically to eliminate the potential for a successful filibuster. Senator Reid knew that a successful filibuster was possible if all Democratic senators were in Washington for the vote. So he scheduled the vote when he recognized that four "No" votes would be out of town. The question is why?
DWG, in the comments on Disgusted in St. Louis's diary, noted that the Hill was reporting that Senator Reid was signaling that the vote would occur in the next several weeks. Either the Hill misread Senator Reid's signal, or Senator Reid changed his tune. Did Senator Reid broker a backroom deal? It certainly wouldn't be the first time.
Remember this articleby CHS at Firedoglake, which noted Senator Reid's approach to the Leslie Southwick nomination, as reported by the Clarion Ledger?
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday he would schedule a vote this week on the nomination of Mississippi Judge Leslie Southwick....
Lott and Reid spoke Thursday night and agreed to move forward on the nomination.
And back in July, Senator Reid brokered this deal with the Whitehouse regarding recess appointments (hat tip to Cmdr. Swift, who left this commentover at TPM :
Anticipating a possible AG resignation, Senator Reid Negotiated with the White House prior to Summer recess to ensure that there would be no recess appointments.
There'll be no recess appointments this time around, Roll Call reports (sub. req.), meaning the White House won't be taking advantage of Congress' vacation to install any contested nominees. That's due to a deal between Bush and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).
So just who did Senator Reid talk to last night in order to bring the nomination vote to the Senate floor? What exactly in Senator Reid getting in return for moving these nominations through? Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo is looking into it. And by focusing on the abandonment of the 60 vote threshold, so is Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com