“In the past week or so, nine Senate Democrats have stated that Judge Neil Gorsuch deserves an up-or-down vote in the Senate — implying that they would not vote to support a filibuster to block his nomination,” National Review reports.
The nine: Richard Blumenthal, Chris Coons, Joe Manchin, Dick Durbin, Heidi Heitkamp, Claire McCaskill, Jon Tester, Joe Donnelly and Jeanne Shaheen.
“There are 48 Democratic senators (or Democrats and independents who align with the Democrats). If nine oppose a filibuster, there will be only 39 senators in support, and the filibuster effort will fail.”
“Of course, any one of these senators could pull a Cory Booker and suddenly forget all past statements on a given issue or nominee and completely reverse himself in an effort to win over the support of the Democratic party’s furious grassroots.”
Chris Coons, if you do not filibuster Goresuch, you will face a primary in 2020. So I suggest you pull a Booker. Senator Tom Carper faces an election in 2018, if he does not retire. It is amazing what facing the Democratic primary voter soon does:
A cynic would point out that Carper is up for reelection sooner. Coons can give everyone the finger for 5 years and then suddenly rediscover the fact he is a Democrat.
I did point that out: “Senator Tom Carper faces an election in 2018, if he does not retire. It is amazing what facing the Democratic primary voter soon does.”
Good point, we need to make it happen.