Friday, November 22, 2013

Harry Reid uses the nuclear option. More stonewalling to come on Benghazi

If you read all the center right blogs, you would think Obama is struggling. That may be true in some areas, but he just won another major victory in the US Senate. Paul Kane writes in the Washington Post,

Senate Democrats took the dramatic step Thursday of eliminating filibusters for most nominations by presidents, a power play they said was necessary to fix a broken system but one that Republicans said will only rupture it further.

Democrats used a rare parliamentary move to change the rules so that federal judicial nominees and executive-office appointments can advance to confirmation votes by a simple majority of senators, rather than the 60-vote supermajority that has been the standard for nearly four decades.

Bridget Johnson reports,

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that the nuclear option not only detonated the filibuster, but most of the leverage he held to get answers from the Obama administration about Benghazi.

Wednesday was the first day Senators had a chance to interview a Benghazi survivor. However, Graham said,

“Unfortunately, Americans who want to get to the truth about what happened in Benghazi were hurt by today’s vote. Without the ability to delay nominations, presidential administrations are likely to be even more successful in their stonewalling efforts,” he said.

1 comment:

Always On Watch said...

Do Americans even realize that the nuclear option will bring about most of Obama's second-term agenda in effect?