Tuesday's First Strike on the Filibuster
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing hard to eliminate the filibuster for executive nominations, on the grounds that Republicans have stood in the way too many times and are refusing to confirm qualified nominees. What’s so striking about this reason is that it’s false. President Obama’s success rate with nominees is actually higher than that of his Republican predecessor. Eighty-six percent of Obama’s civilian nominees — including both judicial- and executive-branch appointees — were confirmed in the 112th Congress. In the 111th Congress, his success rate was 82 percent.