Thank You, Senator Coons.

Four Senate Democrats announced Monday they plan to oppose Neil Gorsuch, bringing the Democratic caucus to the 41 votes needed to sustain a filibuster against President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.   Senator Chris Coons joined Dianne Feinstein of California, Mark Warner of Virginia, and Patrick Leahy of Vermont in stating for the first time Monday that they would not support Gorsuch.

So I would like to thank Mr. Coons for making the morally and strategically correct decision.   Thank you to everyone who kept the pressure up on our Senator.  Hopefully he has learned not to string us along like that again.

Here are his remarks, which really do not make sense to me, and he is still taking about goddamn bipartisanship, and he thinks by voting no on cloture that that will somehow avoid the nuclear option (it won’t, it will in fact provoke McConnell to use it), so that does not give me hope that Coons has learned his lesson.  Alas, I am pleased with the result.

“On Thursday, the full Senate will participate in what’s called a ‘cloture vote.’ It’s one of the Senate’s many long traditions, and though many Americans might not know exactly what it means, it means that we are done debating, that we are ready for the final vote. And almost always a combination of both Democrats and Republicans are required for us to get to cloture. So, on Thursday, we’ll be voting to decide whether we’re ready to finish debating the confirmation of Judge Gorsuch.  I am not ready to end debate on this issue, so I will be voting against cloture unless we are able, as a body, to finally sit down and find a way to avoid ‘the nuclear option’ and ensure that the process to fill the next vacancy on the Court is not a narrowly partisan process, but rather an opportunity for both parties to weigh in and ensure we place a judge on the Court who can secure support from members of both parties.”