Dems controlled the Senate for a while last time too. They were too afraid to use a simple majority to pass through any of their nominations though. 60 votes were required to add someone to the supreme Court, dems had a simple majority and were unwilling to lower because “then the Republicans would use it.”
They actually did remove the filibuster for lower court nominations. Which gave the Republicans easy justification to remove it for Kavanaugh a few years later.
So they essentially handed the Republicans that power without ever using it themselves. Strategic geniuses.
But now that it’s gone, they are shooting themselves in the foot - again - by not having Sotomayor (and Kagan really) retire.
Dems controlled the Senate for a while last time too. They were too afraid to use a simple majority to pass through any of their nominations though. 60 votes were required to add someone to the supreme Court, dems had a simple majority and were unwilling to lower because “then the Republicans would use it.”
Lot of good that did
They actually did remove the filibuster for lower court nominations. Which gave the Republicans easy justification to remove it for Kavanaugh a few years later.
So they essentially handed the Republicans that power without ever using it themselves. Strategic geniuses.
But now that it’s gone, they are shooting themselves in the foot - again - by not having Sotomayor (and Kagan really) retire.