ConfirmThem

By AndrewHyman Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Senator Ben Nelson gave a long interview on Washington Journal yesterday, and he clarified that filibusters against Kavanaugh, Saad, and Haynes must meet the threshold of "extraordinary circumstances." In other words, that threshold is not just applicable to people nominated in the future, but is also applicable to people who have already been nominated. Here's what Sen. Nelson said:

If he [Judge Saad] were to come out [of committee] then he would, in my opinion, get an up-or-down vote, or some of my colleagues may decide that that's exceptional circumstances, so that's sort of where we are. I voted against cloture on Judge Saad, which is the only time I voted against cloture for the filibuster, but the reason I did it was I couldn't go to an up-or-down vote because I couldn't get the file; it was a file that had some information that I wanted to get.

This seems to me like good news for Saad, Kavanaugh, and Haynes. They can't be filibustered unless there are extraordinary circumstances. It's still unclear to me, however, whether or not the "extraordinary circumstances" threshold would also be applicable to Myers, given that Myers had already come out of committee when the agreement was signed (the agreement distinguishes between a "pending nominee" and a "future nominee").

I didn't watch the whole Nelson interview, so others might want to do that. Incidentally, even if the "extraordinary circumstances" threshold is not presently applicable to Myers, there are ways to make it become applicable, as I mentioned earlier.