In an effort led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Republicans voted 51-48 on Wednesday to approve new rules to limit debate time for most of President Trump's nominees to 2 hours instead of the 30 hours now required.

The big picture: The new rule, approved by a procedural motion known as the "nuclear option," is designed to confirm Trump's nominees at a much faster pace. It affects nominations for Cabinet officials, circuit court judges and Supreme Court picks. But later on Thursday, McConnell is expected to make the change to speed up judicial nominees at the district court level as well.</s>The Senate failed to pass a procedural cloture vote Tuesday that would cut Democrats’ time obstructing President Donald Trump’s nominees on the floor, making it likely Republicans will use the nuclear option to change the Senate rules.

The vote was set up by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday, with expectations that it would fail so that the nuclear option can be used.

The motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed was shut down 51-48.

However, since cloture needs 60 “no” votes to fail, McConnell entered a motion to reconsider the failed cloture vote, which will likely be voted on later in the week.

The nuclear option would cut Democrats’ debate time from thirty hours to two hours, making the confirmation process for Trump’s nominees faster.

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Republicans would only need 51 votes to confirm a Trump nominee after the rules change.

McConnell called the Democrat’s actions “systematic obstruction” on the Senate floor Tuesday, saying it is “not targeted, thoughtful opposition to a few marquee nominations or rare circumstances. But a grinding, across-the-board effort to delay and obstruct the people this president puts up. Even if they have unquestionable qualifications. Even if the job is relatively low-profile.”

Other Republicans like Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said Democrats will oppose any nominee Trump puts forward, regardless of who it is.

“Over the past two years, some in this body have decided that they will oppose any nominee suggested by President Trump. There isn’t a senator in this room who serves their state’s interest when qualified, noncontroversial nominees are prevented from being confirmed,” Grassley said on the Senate floor Tuesday.

“However, some members continue to do just that by slow-walking the president’s nominees for partisan purposes.”

“It is not fair to the American people. The American people deserve the government they elected,” McConnell said on the floor Thursday.

“From an institutional perspective, as well all acknowledge, this is completely unsustainable.”

Senate Democrats, such as Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, have pushed back against the rules change, saying it is “an erosion of the Senate’s responsibility, in fact, our sworn constitutional duty to advise and consent,” on the Senate floor Tuesday.

Trump has previously called out Democrats for “slow walking” his executive nominees, saying “Democrats in the Senate are still slow walking hundreds of highly qualified people wanting to come into government,” in a February tweet. “Never been such an abuse in our country’s history.”

The president broke a record for the number of appeals court judges confirmed during the first half of a presidency.

A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.</s>Senate Rewrites Rules To Speed Confirmations For Some Trump Nominees

The Senate voted largely along party lines to change its debate rules — a move that will speed up the confirmation process for some lower-level judicial and agency nominees.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell used a complex procedural maneuver, known as the nuclear option, to cut debate for lower-level nominees from 30 hours to 2 hours. The change does not apply to cabinet-level nominees, federal appeals judges, members of some boards and commissions or the Supreme Court. It also does not change the 60 vote requirement to advance legislation.

All Senate Democrats opposed the move, and they were joined by 2 Republicans — Susan Collins of Maine and Mike Lee of Utah.

McConnell said the change is necessary to prevent obstruction from Democrats who have demanded lengthy debate on a number of nominees. He blamed Democrats for dragging their feet on a variety of non-controversial candidates simply because they were nominated by President Donald Trump.

"It is time for this sorry chapter to end," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "It is time to return this body to a more normal and reasonable process for fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities no matter which party controls the White House."

But Democrats insist changing the rules brings the Senate one step closer to eliminating the filibuster, a key tool for protecting the rights of the minority party in the Senate. Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the longest serving Democrat in the Senate, said Republicans are stripping rank-and-file members of both parties of a much needed opportunity to vet nominees before they come to the floor for a vote.

"It is an erosion of the Senate's responsibility," Leahy said. "It is a removal of one of the last guardrails for quality and bipartisanship win the nominations process. It is a short-sighted partisan power grab."

Democrats and outside analysts like Elliot Mincberg, a senior fellow at People for the American Way, point out that senators have changed their mind on nominees during the 30 hour debate time that Republicans voted to eliminate.

"It's very important to point out that these 30 hours that are provided for under longstanding Senate rules are critical in taking a good hard look at some of these Trump nominees," Mincberg said.

The two high profile examples cited most often are Thomas Farr and Ryan Bounds, two Trump judicial nominees who were not confirmed despite overcoming a first procedural vote. Farr lost a vote in November after three GOP Senators changed their minds, Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., Susan Collins, R-Maine and Lisa Murkwoski, R-Alasksa.

Trump withdrew the Bounds nomination after it became clear that he would meet a similar fate.

Democrats and activists also worry that the move will further ease Republicans' quest to remake the federal court system by installing conservative judges at all levels of the judiciary.

"What Leader McConnell, President Trump and Republicans in the Senate are trying to do is use the courts to adopt a far-right agenda that Republicans know they cannot enact through the legislative process," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. said shortly before the rules change. "They decided there was another route to achieving their policy goals. One that requires neither public support nor legislation: the court."

Progressive activists have been organizing against the rules change and hope to make the courts a larger issue for Democrats in the 2020 election.

Daniel Goldberg, legal director at the left-leaning Alliance for Justice, said, "This is just another example of the outrageous actions by Senator McConnell and the Senate majority to do everything they can to enable the confirmation of ideologically extreme judges without careful vetting and without scrutiny by fellow Senators and by the American people."</s>
• Senate Republicans voted to change the rules for confirming judges and other positions, reducing the required debate time from 30 hours to two.
• Only two Republicans voted against the rule change.
• Senate Republicans have been confirming Trump’s judicial nominees at a breakneck speed for years and now will be able to do it even faster.

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans voted to change the rules for confirming judicial and other nominees on Wednesday, reducing the required debate time.

The rules change now allows Republicans to push through President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees at an even faster pace than they have for the past two years, which has been a key component of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s legislative agenda.

Read more: Senators are at each other’s throats over Kavanaugh’s confirmation, and some fear there could be lasting damage

The final vote was 51-48 for rule change. Only two Republicans voted against the rule change, Mike Lee of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine.

Typically, executive nominees, whether they are for the Supreme Court or a host of other positions with in the federal government that the Senate has to shepherd through and confirm, receive 30 hours of debate on the floor. This debate period can be waved in some cases, but throughout the Trump presidency, Senate Democrats have used the full 30 hours. Exceptions have been when Senate Minority Leader cut a deal with McConnell to push through judges in big waves.

The new rule of two hours for debate only applies to district court nominees and sub-cabinet nominees. The full 30 hours of debate will still be in effect for Supreme and Circuit Court nominees as well as individuals selected for the president’s cabinet.

But Republicans have grown frustrated with the long process, causing Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri and James Lankford of Oklahoma to craft a resolution to slash the required debate time to just two hours.

After the initial vote for Blunt and Lankford’s resolution failed on Tuesday, McConnell used a parliamentary procedure to change the rules on Wednesday. This involved McConnell raising a point of order that there are two hours of postcloture debate, not 30. The chair of the Senate ruled that is not correct, prompting a vote to uphold the ruling.

This resulted in Democrats, along with Lee and Collins, voting “yes” to uphold the current rules and the rest of the Republicans voting “no” to change the rules of the Senate. California Sen. Kamala Harris did not vote.

Republicans and Democrats going at each other over judicial nominations has reached boiling points before, such as when McConnell canceled the annual August recess in 2018.

In October, shortly after the long and tumultuous confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer cut a deal to confirm a slew of judges in exchange for letting lawmakers depart Washington for the final stretch of the midterm elections cycle.

And Senate rules have changed to make confirmations move more swiftly and with ease in the past. In 2014, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scrapped the 60-vote threshold for certain nominees by using the “nuclear option.”

The nuclear option allows the majority leader to bypass the filibuster or the 67-vote threshold for Senate rule changes. While rare, McConnell has utilized this parliamentary tool before, as did Reid, his Democratic predecessor.

McConnell took it another step further when he removed the filibuster option for Supreme Court nominees and confirmed Neil Gorsuch.

McConnell has set records in judicial confirmations during the past two years, enabled in part because of how long he kept open vacancies during the Barack Obama administration. Now, McConnell has gone “nuclear” again, changing the rules to usher in more judges and continue his quest to dramatically reshape the federal judiciary in a textualist mold.</s>In another step of a more than twenty year parliamentary spat over which party has wrongly exploited the Senate rules to slow down nominations of the President of the other party, Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday used the 'nuclear option' to reduce the amount of debate time on federal district court judges and nominees to posts below Cabinet positions, making it easier for President Donald Trump's choices to get through the Senate.

"Republicans believe, regardless of who the President is, they should be able to hire their staff," said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), who has pressed for a change in debate rules for months.

It was the third time the 'nuclear option' had been used in the Senate to alter the rules governing the filibuster and nominations:

+ In November 2013, Democrats eliminated the 60 vote requirement on all nominations by a President - except for the U.S. Supreme Court.

+ In April 2017, Republicans stripped the 60 vote requirement for U.S. Supreme Court nominations.

This change does not alter the filibuster at all, but would instead reduce the amount of time required for debate after Senators had voted to force final action, cutting that from 30 hours down to just two hours, allowing faster action on Presidential picks.

The change would not apply to Supreme Court nominees, or Cabinet-level nominations.

The vote to change the precedents of the Senate was 51-48, as two Republicans broke with GOP leaders, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.



To those not working in the halls of Congress, the change might sound arcane and insignificant; but on the Senate floor, there was finger pointing and raised voices as the nuclear option was exercised.

Bubbling below the surface of today's change in rules precedents was a he-said-she-said fight that has been going on for over twenty years in the Senate, as each party blames the other for starting a parliamentary assault which has resulted in the filibuster being used on a regular basis to block and slow nominations, especially to the federal judiciary.

Republicans said the use of the filibuster against a group of federal appeals court nominees during the Bush Administration had set in motion a tit-for-tat.

"He started this whole thing," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a raised voice, while pointing his finger at Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer, recounting how Schumer and Democrats had used the filibuster against President Bush.

"I will call it Miguel Estrada's revenge," said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said of the debate time change, invoking the name of one conservative judge nominated by President George W. Bush in 2001, but blocked in the Senate by Democrats - the first time a party had used a filibuster to block an appeals court nominee.

Meanwhile, Democrats took their grievances back to the Bill Clinton Administration, when Republicans refused to act on numerous nominations - even arguing at times that certain appeals courts did not need to have judicial vacancies filled - as both parties voiced their own set of grievances from the past when it came to filibusters and nomination hijinx.

"This is a very sad day for the Senate," said Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer, as Democrats noted that Republicans have repeatedly bragged about how many Trump judicial nominees have been approved by the Senate, and that the Senate will now be able to speed up those proceedings.

Schumer and other Democrats also brought up the name of President Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, who was never given a hearing or a vote by the GOP-controlled Senate after the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

"They filibustered the first Secretary of Defense nominee in the history of America," said Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), noting President Obama's choice of ex-Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) to lead the Pentagon was slowed by opposition from Republicans in early 2013.

Bennet though was one of the Democrats who voted back in 2013 to end the 60 vote requirement on most nominees, as he now acknowledged that he thought the move was a mistake, as it opened the gates to further changes.

Other Democrats joined in accusing Republicans of crying wolf, and conveniently forgetting about their own efforts to slow the nominations of the last Administration.

"Only 22 judicial nominees were confirmed in the final two years of the Obama presidency," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), noting that was "the fewest in a Congress since Harry Truman was President," as Democrats say GOP filibusters kept judicial vacancies from being filled, giving President Trump more possible nominations to the federal bench.

The nuclear option battle came over the nomination of Jeffrey Kessler for an Assistant Secretary of Commerce post, as Republicans said there was no reason a job like that should be subjected to 30 hours of debate after Senators voted to force final action.

The latest change again raised the specter of the 60 vote filibuster threshold being scrapped entirely by the Senate on legislation, just over 100 years after the cloture rule was instituted by the Senate, at the behest of President Woodrow Wilson.

"I’m a Senate defender and a longstanding believer that most Senators want to keep the legislative filibuster, but even I’m having a very hard time seeing how it survives the next unified government," said Matt Glassman, a senior fellow at the Government Affairs Institute of Georgetown University.

But Senate Majority Leader McConnell made very clear that he had no intention of ending the legislative filibuster.

"I know many of our colleagues on both sides share my view that this part of the Senate's DNA must never be put in jeopardy," McConnell said on the Senate floor.

But ending the filibuster - which has long been a goal of liberal groups since the 1960's and the Civil Rights Era - has also now become a big goal of many Democratic candidates running for President in 2020.

Since the cloture rule was instituted in 1917 - requiring a two-thirds vote to force an end to debate - the number of votes was reduced in 1975, bringing it down from 67 to 60 votes on legislation.

Originally, nominations were never subjected to filibusters in the Senate - but that changed in the 1990's, leading to dozens of cloture votes on nominations - and charges of bad faith - where each party has echoed the arguments of the other, simply depending on whether they were in the minority or majority.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's Senate GOP allies, frustrated by delays in confirming dozens of lower-profile nominees, are forcing through a rules change to cut back debate on most of his picks.

The GOP plan is to indefinitely restore rules in place during the first few years of President Barack Obama's second term. Those rules have lapsed, allowing any senator to force 30 hours of debate on a nominee.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who's no stranger to obstructionist tactics himself, says the situation has gotten out of hand, with the Senate taking 128 votes to end debate on Trump's nominees during his first two years in office, far more than under other presidents.

"The Senate's advice and consent power is not supposed to be used to slow-walk all of a president's nominees simply because one party doesn't like the president who is doing the nominating," said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the second-ranking Republican.

The proposed rules change would limit debate on most nominees to two hours instead of the 30 hours now required. Cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court nominations, and appeals court judges would be exempted from the new rules.

McConnell is set to employ a procedural maneuver to effectively change the rules by a party-line vote instead of the supermajority that would ordinarily be required.

Former Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada used the same approach in 2013 to lower the filibuster threshold on most nominations to a simple majority when faced with what Democrats said was GOP obstructionism.

Republicans said at the time that Reid and Democrats would come to regret that rules change, which has given Trump largely free rein to fill numerous judicial vacancies that have piled up over the years.

Democrats, who benefited from prior rules changes under Obama, are strongly protesting now. They say the GOP move would enable Trump and future presidents, so long as their party controls the Senate, to run roughshod over the Senate.

They say the hurdles required to win confirmation should be difficult as a way to ensure nominees are ethical, qualified and responsive to requests by senators for information.

"There is no emergency that justifies changing the Senate rules. Sen. McConnell himself admitted the Senate has plenty of time to consider nominees," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. "This is all about avoiding close scrutiny for extreme ideological nominees that Republicans want to pack onto the federal courts for lifetime appointments."

Democrats also say that GOP complaints over their tactics now ring hollow after the obstructionism Obama experienced over his two terms.

Merrick Garland, a federal appeals court judge nominated to the Supreme Court by Obama, failed to get a Senate hearing, and Republicans stalled numerous other Obama judicial nominees — both when the GOP was in the minority and then after retaking the Senate in 2015.

Armed with the White House and control of the Senate, Trump is now confirming both district and appeals court judges at a dizzying pace and is positioned to reshape the federal judiciary even if he fails to win a second term.</s>President Donald Trump's Senate GOP allies, frustrated by delays in confirming dozens of lower-profile nominees, rammed through a rules change Wednesday that cuts back debate on most of his picks.

The GOP plan, approved 51-48, indefinitely restored rules in place during the first few years of President Barack Obama's second term. Those rules had lapsed, allowing any senator to force 30 hours of debate on a nominee.

The rules change limits debate on most nominees to two hours instead of 30. White House selections for the Cabinet, Supreme Court and appeals courts would be exempted from the new rules. Every Democrat opposed the maneuver, joined by two Republicans: Susan Collins of Maine and Mike Lee of Utah.

The Senate changed the rules after a partisan debate that featured unusually personal finger-pointing between the chamber's party leaders, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Minority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. They have battled over judicial filibusters since the administration of President George W. Bush.

McConnell, no stranger to obstructionist tactics himself, said the situation had gotten out of hand, with the Senate taking 128 votes to end debate on Trump's nominees during his first two years in office, far more than under other presidents.

"The comprehensive campaign by Senate Democrats to delay Senate consideration of presidential nominations is now more than two years old," McConnell said. "It's time for this sorry chapter to end."

Pointing at Schumer repeatedly during a tartly worded speech, McConnell said the battles on presidential nominees date back to Schumer-led filibusters of Bush appeals court picks such as Miguel Estrada, whose nomination stalled after a lobbying campaign by liberal judicial activists.

"He started this whole thing that we've been wrestling with since 2003, cooked it up, convinced his colleagues to do it," McConnell said.

Schumer said McConnell was Machiavellian, cynical and hypocritical, and used his speech to recount a series of GOP power plays.

"This is a very sad day for the Senate. At a time when Leader McConnell brags about confirming more judges than anyone has done in a very long time, he feels the need to invoke the terribly destructive and disproportionate procedure of the 'nuclear option' in order to fast-track even more of President Trump's ultra-conservative nominees to the federal bench," Schumer said.

Schumer, however, supported this step in a 2013 vote orchestrated by then Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that eliminated the filibuster on Cabinet nominees and most judicial appointees. The maneuver allows the majority to change the rules on a party-line vote.

Republicans said at the time that Reid and Democrats would come to regret the change, which has given Trump largely free rein to fill numerous judicial vacancies that have piled up over the years.

"I share some of the responsibility for where we find ourselves today," said Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo. He said McConnell "said at the time that 'you're going to come to regret this decision,' and I will say this about him, he was right. I do."

Many Democrats, who benefited from prior rules changes under Obama, now say the GOP move will enable Trump and future presidents, so long as their party controls the Senate, to run roughshod over the Senate.

They say the hurdles required to win confirmation should be difficult as a way to ensure nominees are ethical, qualified and responsive to requests by senators for information.

"There is no emergency that justifies changing the Senate rules. Sen. McConnell himself admitted the Senate has plenty of time to consider nominees," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. "This is all about avoiding close scrutiny for extreme ideological nominees that Republicans want to pack onto the federal courts for lifetime appointments."

But other Democrats, McConnell said, indicated behind the scenes that they could support the rules change provided that it wouldn't take effect until the next administration.

Democrats also say that GOP complaints over their tactics now ring hollow after the obstructionism Obama experienced over his two terms.

Merrick Garland, a federal appeals court judge nominated to the Supreme Court by Obama, failed to get a Senate hearing, and Republicans stalled numerous other Obama judicial nominees — both when the GOP was in the minority and then after retaking the Senate in 2015.

Armed with the White House and control of the Senate, Trump is now confirming both district and appeals court judges at a dizzying pace and is positioned to reshape the federal judiciary even if he fails to win a second term.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans are frustrated by delays in confirming dozens of President Donald Trump's lower-profile nominees, so they're forcing through a rules change to cut back debate on most of his picks.

The GOP plan is to indefinitely restore rules in place during the first few years of President Barack Obama's second term. Those rules have lapsed, allowing any senator to force 30 hours of debate on a nominee.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who's no stranger to obstructionist tactics himself, says the situation has gotten out of hand, with the Senate taking 128 votes to end debate on Trump's nominees during his first two years in office.

Democrats are protesting the Republicans' move, saying it would enable Trump and future presidents to run roughshod over the Senate.</s>For the second time in Donald Trump's presidency, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has triggered what is known as the "nuclear option."

On Wednesday, McConnell used Senate procedural tactics to bypass a 60-vote threshold required to overcome opposition to slashing the debate time for lower-level executive branch nominations, enabling him to do so with just a simple 51-vote majority. Later Wednesday, McConnell planned to use the same move to shorten debate time for district court nominations.

McConnell is pulling the lever on the nuclear option to make it so that non-Cabinet-level executive and district court nominations need only two hours of floor debate rather than the existing 30 hours of debate before a final confirmation vote is held.

Republicans tried to pass a resolution requiring as much on Tuesday, but the measure got just 51 of the 60 votes required for adoption.

With debate limited, it will be significantly easier for McConnell to get some of Trump's nominees confirmed. McConnell previously went nuclear on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominations, which had required 60 votes, in order to place Neil Gorsuch and, later, Brett Kavanaugh on the high court.

What is the nuclear option?

It's a last-resort, break-in-case-of-emergency way for the majority party in the Senate to overcome obstruction by the minority. It involves changing the rules of the Senate so that an action previously subject to a filibuster, and thus a 60-vote threshold, can pass with a simple 51-vote majority.

Where does the name come from?

Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., coined the term because both parties saw it as an unthinkable final recourse, just like nuclear war. During a standoff over President George W. Bush's nominees in 2003, Republicans discussed invoking the parliamentary move by using the codeword "the Hulk" since it, like the superhero alter ego, cannot be controlled once it is unleashed.

Others, wanting to give it a positive spin, call changing the rules "the constitutional option."

Has the nuclear option been used before?

Senators have threatened to go nuclear for decades. In 1957, Vice President Richard Nixon wrote an advisory opinion that helped lay the groundwork for the procedural move.

But no one pushed the proverbial button until 2013, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., invoked the nuclear option to lower the 60-vote threshold to 51 for confirmation of executive branch nominees (such as Cabinet secretaries) and federal judges below the Supreme Court (such as for U.S. courts of appeal).

Reid justified the move by citing unprecedented obstruction from Senate Republicans, but members of both parties lamented the precedent it set. McConnell and Republicans repeatedly cited Reid's move as the basis for invoking the option regarding Supreme Curt nominees.

What does it mean?

As a result of the nuclear option being triggered, Trump and future presidents of either party will have a much easier time getting lower-level nominees confirmed — which has played no small part in McConnell and Trump having confirmed a record number of judges to the federal bench in such a short time.

With just 51 votes needed, judges can be approved on party lines. The 60-vote threshold made it so that, in most cases, a bipartisan consensus was needed.

Not only has this option been heavily discussed with regard to judicial and other nominees, but there have been increasing calls for it to be used to abolish the 60-vote threshold for legislation. Early in his presidency, Trump called for the 60-vote threshold to be eliminated so he would have an easier time with legislation, while, on the campaign trail, a number of Democratic candidates have expressed interest in ending the legislative filibuster so they can have an easier time passing their agendas.</s>If the U.S. Senate turns into the House of Representatives, only with fewer members serving longer terms, then why have the Senate at all?

The framers of our nation's Constitution created the two bodies of Congress to be distinctly different from one another. There was the House, with the number of a state's delegation determined by population, its members serving two-year terms, and directly elected by the people. This would make the body reactive, subject to the winds of the moment. And then there would be the Senate. There, the members would be a step removed from the populace as they'd be selected by a state's legislature. Further insulating them from the shifting sands would be their six-year terms in office. And, each state, no matter its population, would send two senators to our federal city.

The House would be Democratic. The Senate, not so much.

Over time, the distinctions slipped away. The 17th Amendment to our Constitution, ratified in 1913, established the direct election of senators. More recently, the Senate itself has thrice invoked the so-called nuclear option, changing the rules of the body with a simple majority vote, rather than with the two-thirds majority that had long been required.

It happened again on Wednesday, when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell invoked the nuclear option to cut dramatically the amount of time to debate executive branch nominations. Specifically, 30 hours of debate that had been allowed were slashed to just two. That’s a reduction of 93 percent, if you’re scoring at home. And it happened on a vote of 51-48, with every Republican senator save two -- Mike Lee of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine -- going along with the move to water down the constitutionally mandated advice-and-consent role of the Senate.

The argument from Republicans, from McConnell on down the line, is that they'd been left with no choice because Senate Democrats had been slow-walking so many of President Donald Trump's appointments. Coming from McConnell and his team of Trump toadies, this is the worst sort of hypocrisy.

Kentuckian McConnell, of course, held open a vacant seat on the Supreme Court for more than a year after the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016, refusing even to consider President Barack Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick Garland. McConnell stole the seat for Republicans, plain and simple, and he's proud of it.

His brazen obstructionism will long stand as the worst in class, making anything he says about the doings of Democrats little but just more blather.

That said, there's an awful lot of blame to go around. Back when he was majority leader, Sen. Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, employed the nuclear option to keep Senate Republicans from holding up Obama's nominees. Since then, each side has blamed the other when it sees fit. And the battle grows increasingly nuclear still.

As this goes on, sadly, the Senate becomes less like the body it was intended to be.

Eventually, of course, there's the very real risk that the filibuster, which empowers the minority and keeps the majority party from ruling like a mob, could be eliminated entirely. By going nuclear again with a simple majority vote.

If that happens, one might reasonably ask if there’s any need for the Senate at all.
In an effort led by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Republicans vote 51-48 to approve new Senate rules to limit the in-session debate time for most of President Donald Trump's appointed political nominees to two hours instead of the previously required 30 hours. Senate Republicans invoke the so-called "nuclear option" to approve the new rules, a procedure that allows the Senate to amend rules with a simple majority of 51 votes, rather than the two-thirds supermajority normally required to do so.