The Senate was forced to spend time Thursday on the Democrats' agenda, showing that there's the potential for some procedural sabotage on both sides of the aisle there. Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer made the rare move Tuesday of filing a cloture motion to proceed to a bill to block the Justice Department from intervening in support of the lawsuit trying to take down the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Schumer's proposal was a multipurpose one: It highlights the Supreme Court fight and the illegitimate nomination of Amy Coney Barrett; it highlights Republican opposition to people having health care; and it uses up Senate time. It failed 51-43 (needing 60 votes), but it made some Republicans squirm.
Here’s the strategy: "It's directly related to, we think, the critical issue both in the election and the Supreme Court nomination, which is the Republican efforts to destroy health care in a pandemic," Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, told reporters Wednesday. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could move to table the bill, but that's still facing Republicans to take a vote on destroying health care. It’s a testament to how well this works to see vulnerable Republicans Joni Ernst, Susan Collins, Cory Gardner, and Martha McSally (!) voting against Trump and with Democrats.
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This is just one of the low-key procedural tactics Democrats have been trying, but definitely the most rarely used one. Any senator can ask for a cloture vote on something, but they almost never do because if they did it all the time, it would shut down the Senate. Which is not a bad idea right now; it’s one they should be deploying for the next four weeks to keep McConnell on his toes, if nothing else.
Derailing Barrett's nomination is not going to be easy because McConnell has other tools, and he'll use them. Like piling on more judicial nominations. "We're prepared for that if they decide they want to use motions to adjourn or try and use the tools at their disposal to keep us here, that's fine,” Senate Majority Whip John Thune said Tuesday. "But that keeps them here too and what that means is we'll do more judges and more executive nominations that those guys don't like."
That "keeps them here too" bit? That's Thune acknowledging that the tactic is a problem for Republicans because so many of them are fighting for their political lives. Given that only one Democratic senator is really in danger—Alabama's Doug Jones—it's a gambit that doesn't hurt Democrats and is worth the effort. Keeping Republicans off the campaign trail is just icing on the making-McConnell's-life-hell cake.