.MaddowBlog: Senate Majority Leader McConnell wants to talk about 'obstructionism' that is 'hurting the Senate.' The hypocrisy is breathtaking.
If all goes according to plan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will execute the “nuclear option” today, forcing a shift in the chamber’s rules in order to make it easier to quickly approve more of Donald Trump’s judicial and executive-branch nominees.
Because of this obstruction, the Senate’s progress in filling important executive branch positions has been insufficient. Crucial jobs are still being held empty out of political spite. More nominees whom I suspect would be confirmed without opposition are still being delayed indefinitely because our colleagues cannot finish grieving their loss in 2016.
There’s some truth to the assertion that the Senate Democratic minority has been vigorous in slowing down the confirmation process, borrowing a page from Republicans’ playbook, and taking it just a little further by applying the tactics to relatively obscure, lower-level nominees. I’m reminded of a column the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank wrote two years ago this week, describing McConnell as the politician who effectively “broke America.”
As we discussed in detail at the time, whether one finds McConnell’s work outrageous is a matter of perspective. If you’re a loyal Republican partisan, the GOP’s Senate leader has simply taken every possible opportunity to maximize his party’s interests, using the levers of power at his disposal.
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