Dems: Yeah, We Blew It By Using the Nuclear Option

[Mac1958]

Thank you Harry Reid.

(CNN)Senate Democrats are eager to make Donald Trump pay a political price for nominating staunch conservatives to fill out his Cabinet, hoping to exact revenge for the GOP's stubborn opposition to President Barack Obama's nominees.
But there is little they can do about it -- and some top Democrats are now coming to regret it.

That's because Senate Democrats muscled through an unprecedented rules change in 2013 to weaken the power of the minority party to filibuster Cabinet-level appointees and most judicial nominees, now setting the threshold at 51 votes -- rather than 60 -- to overcome tactics aimed at derailing nominations.
With the Senate GOP poised to hold 52 seats next Congress, some Democrats now say they should have thought twice before making the rules change -- known on Capitol Hill as the "nuclear option."
"I do regret that," said Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a Democrat who voted for the rules change three years ago. "I frankly think many of us will regret that in this Congress because it would have been a terrific speed bump, potential emergency break, to have in our system to slow down nominees."

What is it about politicians that makes them so short-sighted?

They must think that, whenever they're in control, they'll be in control FOREVER. They're just SO damn GOOD.

The Dems over-interpreted their "mandate" (ha ha) and here we are. And no one should be surprised if the GOP does precisely the same thing.
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Democrats really did think they would be in power forever. They had demographic change that ensured a Democrat majority forever kept by pandering.

Had democrats won this time, they would have had it. In four years they would have jammed in millions of non white immigrants.

Both parties have a tendency to think they'll be in power forever. Under Bush there was talk of the "Permanent Republican Majority." Then Obama inherited all of the expanded Executive powers that Bush and Cheney engineered. Pelosi, Reid, and Obama assumed they'd be in power forever and failed to roll things back. Now Trump has the most powerful Presidency in US history. And in 4-8 years he'll be out too.

The parties can be counted on to (a) claim a "mandate", and then (b) over-interpret that "mandate" enough to piss people off and get thrown out on their butts.

The narcissism that infects partisans ideologues both motivates them and beats them.
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Well the dems have inflicted their agenda on America even without a mandate. Who can forget this? Talk about in your face. This is where the people started getting really pissed at the dems. The majority of Americans were against this abortion of a bill and still are, yet the dems rammed it through behind locked doors and bribed people to vote for it. "WE HAVE TO PASS THE BILL TO FIND OUT WHAT'S IN IT." It was a dark day in the history of American politics that the dems are now living to regret...

Yes, both parties claim a "mandate" with every victory and then over-interpret it.

A "mandate" isn't a trophy you get, it's not official, it's not a verifiable fact. It's nothing more than opinion.

It would be better if the parties admitted that, instead of legislating for their base and getting thrown out every few years.
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[pwjohn]

Thank you Harry Reid.

(CNN)Senate Democrats are eager to make Donald Trump pay a political price for nominating staunch conservatives to fill out his Cabinet, hoping to exact revenge for the GOP's stubborn opposition to President Barack Obama's nominees.
But there is little they can do about it -- and some top Democrats are now coming to regret it.

That's because Senate Democrats muscled through an unprecedented rules change in 2013 to weaken the power of the minority party to filibuster Cabinet-level appointees and most judicial nominees, now setting the threshold at 51 votes -- rather than 60 -- to overcome tactics aimed at derailing nominations.
With the Senate GOP poised to hold 52 seats next Congress, some Democrats now say they should have thought twice before making the rules change -- known on Capitol Hill as the "nuclear option."
"I do regret that," said Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a Democrat who voted for the rules change three years ago. "I frankly think many of us will regret that in this Congress because it would have been a terrific speed bump, potential emergency break, to have in our system to slow down nominees."

Senate majority leader Harry Reid's job was to protect & promote president Obama's agenda. He couldn't have been more successful at that. Unfortunately the wreckage he left in his wake to accomplish that task will hurt the party for years to come.