Tapper: Is the balance of the power in the Senate still going to be 51-49?

Sinema: I know you have to ask that question, Jake, but that's kind of a DC thing to worry about.

Tweet

  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
    hexagon
    ·
    2 years ago

    She is now irrelevant

    Not quite.

    Biden's appointment's to the federal bench... 51 dem votes makes it a cakewalk. 50 votes means the GOP can throw monkey wrenches into the process

    Manchin still exists.

    Other shitty dems have kept quiet and let Manchin and Sinema take the heat but it only requires one more dem (the same one or a cast of characters) to suddenly say to the media have the "questions" or there are "issues" and we are back where we were before the elections.

    • CanYouFeelItMrKrabs [any, he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      The Dems definitely do sit back and let those two be painted as the bad ones. But I think Manchin was more ready to make deals than Sinema or at least more clear in what he is specifically objecting to. That's at least my sense in the past years but that could be wrong

      • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yeah, Sinema didn't really lose credibility with centrists until she nuked some deal that Manchin brokered with the rest of the party. I think the leadership genuinely do not like her lol.

    • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      51 dem votes is a cakewalk, 50-49-1 is as well, 50-50 is the issue. The question is whether the judiciary committee is evenly split or not, you can't filibuster the floor vote so the main way to delay judicial noms is in committee afaik. I think as long as Sinema doesn't caucus with Republicans, Dems get to have clean majorities in all committees.

      • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
        hexagon
        ·
        2 years ago

        There's also the blue slip bullshit. It's just a custom but it allows the dems to fuck themselves if they want to. And why wouldn't they want to?

        Blue slip

        In the Senate, it is the slip on which the Senators from the state of residence of a federal judicial nominee give an opinion on the nominee.


        A Democratic Judicial Makeover Depends on Blue Slips - The American Prospect

        Will Senate Democrats let Republicans use an arcane Senate ‘tradition’ to block Biden’s judicial nominees?

        I'm not going to read that article because I already wish I could erase the blue slip detail from my brain. Details don't matter when it comes to the democrats. They aren't good at anything except for failing. And if they put their mind to it - they will always fail at Olympic medal level.