President Obama announcing Rep. Mel Watt's nomination.
The Senate is once again flirting with the nuclear option on the filibuster for nominations. The first one up is
Thursday with a cloture vote to move forward the nomination of Rep. Mel Watt to head up the Federal Housing Finance Agency. If Watt's nomination is blocked, Reid will probably move on to the nomination of Patricia Millet to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. If Watt's nomination is approved, the Senate will probably move to the debate on his nomination.
Watt's nomination is by no mean assured, though it should be helped by the support of Cory Booker, who will be sworn before the vote. But the animosity that Wall Street holds against Watt jeopardizes his confirmation.
Sources familiar with the talks said Watt is still at least two votes shy of 60 with North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr the only Republican who has publicly voiced support for the nomination. The sources, however, declined to say who beyond Burr they expect to vote for Watt.
At least seven Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio, Tim Scott of South Carolina — said on Tuesday they have not decided how they will vote.
All of these senators remember very well the nuclear option threat Reid was ready to carry through with this summer, when Republicans relented and allowed a number of President Obama's executive nominations to go forward. Reid didn't pull that threat away, instead expressly telling Republicans that he was going to keep it in his back pocket ready to use whenever necessary. Now might be that time.
9:36 AM PT: And he was filibusters. Reid didn't move yet on nuclear option, but the Senate has moved directly on to the Patricia Millet nomination, so it could get interesting.
