Apr.20

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

Lindsey Graham Makes It Official

No, not that. We assume that won't become official until after he leaves office, if it ever does.

What we mean is that it took just one objection to derail the "temporarily replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on the Judiciary Committee" plan, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) became the person to lodge that objection. That means that a full floor vote on the resolution would be required to pass the resolution. And, of course, the filibuster is available, so 60 votes would be needed.

At this point, three possible options would appear to be off the table. To wit:

1. Actually adopting the resolution. There aren't 10 Republican votes for it.
2. Getting one Judiciary Committee Republican to vote "present" while Feinstein is ill. Graham was the obvious possibility, and he's not interested.
3. Changing the filibuster rules. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) are filibuster fetishists, as it is. They are also looking to cultivate a reputation right now as "mavericks" willing to buck the Democrats. "Sen. Manchin/Sinema voted to rewrite the sacred rules of the Senate so they could help seat dozens of ultra-liberal judges" is not the sort of attack line they want to hear from their opponents. And incidentally, with apologies to Dave Barry, "Filibuster Fetishists" would be a pretty good name for a rock band. It would also be a pretty good alternate name for Electoral-Vote.xxx, once we launch that site.

There is a fourth possibility that is probably on life support:

4. Using discharge resolutions to get around Judiciary Committee tie votes. This is an extremely onerous approach, and one that would require all 50 Democratic and independent votes to be successful. Again, Manchin and Sinema are not looking to be a part of this sort of thing right now.

And so, that leaves us with just two outcomes that seem plausible to us:

5. Feinstein finds a way to return to work part-time.
6. Feinstein resigns.

Inasmuch as Congress has a long history of getting votes out of members who are on death's door, we would guess that figuring out a way for Feinstein to resume the bare minimum amount of her duties is the more likely of the two.

Now, it is at least possible that the Senator's so far gone, mentally, she is not capable of understanding the issues here and making an informed decision about her continuing service. Doubtful, but if this is the case, we're in something of a brave new world. That said, this is exactly why conservatorships exist, and if and when a conservator was appointed, they could resign Feinstein's seat on her behalf. Obviously, the Democrats really, really don't want to go there, but if they have to, well, they're just not going to give up 2 years of judge confirming. (Z)