Democrats Have Forgotten About Establishing A Floor

Senate democrats on tuesday introduced legislation that would establish a task force to investigate claims that the trump administration politicized health agencies response to the coronavirus.

Democrats have forgotten about establishing a floor.

Instead of opening a formal impeachment inquiry in ukrainegate democrats should have calmed down taken a deep breath and counted to 67. If democrats manage to hold the house of representatives and win back the senate and the white house in november the party will have full control of the federal government for the first time in. That s the number of votes needed in the senate to. Democrats in congress have done little more than pay lip service to bipartisanship in the week since the passing of justice ruth bader ginsburg.

Bush s first term senate democrats pioneered the use of the filibuster to block nominees to the circuit courts. That was also unprecedented. That fact means democrats have at least some power they could use. While democrats power to stop a trump nominee is certainly limited there s one way to know they have at least some power to obstruct.

Miguel estrada was left hanging for 28 months before he withdrew though he had support from 55 senators. As the minority party following a disastrous midterm in 2014 they could not force a committee or a floor. If the roles were reversed and mcconnell were in the minority we all know he would find a way to grind the process to a halt. More than 6 5 million americans have been infected with the virus and more than 194 000 have died.

Democrats were outraged of course but were short of tools with which to respond. Even as the high court s ideological balance is.