After an extremely nasty few weeks in the Senate, both sides seemed to have come to the conclusion that getting away from each other was priority number one. They
reached a last-minute deal to wrap up a few key nominations and get the hell out of town. But that deal wasn't reached without a lot of threats.
Senate Republicans were forcing Democrats to take as much time as possible working through nominations. They had even planned to skip town after a vote on a key defense bill, and leave Democrats to suffer through a long series of cloture votes and nomination votes starting at 4 a.m. Friday.
That raised the prospect that several nomination votes would have been run through the Senate with only a handful of Republican senators around.
Before the deal, several Senate Republicans made it clear that they would leave town, and stick Democrats with the task of pushing through nominations that many Republicans opposed anyway.
"Christmas is a family time of year," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). "I'm going to be with my family so I'm leaving tomorrow night."
How collegial. At any rate, the deal was struck, and six votes began at 10:15 Friday morning: a final vote on Alejandro Mayorkas to be the next deputy secretary of Homeland Security, cloture and final vote on John Koskinen to be the next IRS commissioner, cloture and final vote on Brian Davis to be a district judge in Florida, and cloture on Janet Yellen to the Federal Reserve. The Yellen final vote will be held on January 6.
With Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) filling in for the ailing Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Senate voted the way only a Senate ready to leave town can, fast and without any more drama. All were approved: Mayorkas was confirmed with a 54-41 vote; Koskinen, 59-36; Davis, 68-26; and Yellen cloture, 59-34.
Then, Durbin invoked cloture on the unemployment benefits extension, setting up a vote for early January. The Senate then moved to morning business, not yet adjourning.