Rep. Mo Brooks, with what he calls the bicameral Republican immigration working group. They sure accomplished a lot.
Rep. Mo Brooks, with what he calls the bicameral Republican immigration working group. They sure accomplished a lot.
House Republicans aren't alone in
clamoring for the nuclear option on the filibuster, it turns out. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is
getting pressure from his side of Capitol Hill, too. Well, if you can believe a House Republican.
Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., said Friday that he had spoken to senators who support changing the filibuster rules.
"I've talked to senators who have expressed to Mitch McConnell that we need to protect the United States Constitution and we need to expand Harry Reid's nuclear option to include must-pass legislation dealing with financing of the federal government," Brooks said.
Brooks would not say exactly how many senators he'd talked to expressing that opinion, nor would he provide any names.
"McConnell has received the message from members of his own body, but again it's going to come down to whether you've got 51 members of the United States Senate who are willing to put the Constitution first and foremost," Brooks said.
Well, since it's all about the Constitution … which of course it isn't. That's just tea-party speak for hating on immigrants, because what's behind all of this is the Homeland Security funding fight over President Obama's immigration policies. McConnell's not likely to heed the call—even the biggest fly in his ointment doesn't want the rule change. Ted Cruz says "I think the Senate rules wisely protect the minority. […] The answer is not to change the Senate rules. The answer is for Senate Democrats not to be obstructionist." That's because Cruz in
operating under the delusion, as usual, that public opinion is on his side and will blame the Democrats if DHS is shut down.
McConnell is going to be under an awful lot of pressure in the next two years to go nuclear on the filibuster. Which he would do in a second if there wasn't the presidential veto looming out there. As it stands, there probably aren't 51 Republican senators willing to do it and McConnell pushing them would be pointless. More's the pity. It would be done then, and Democrats could come back in 2017 and clean it up.
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