Can Harry Reid Break The GOP Filibuster On Goodwin Liu? Today's The Day

Goodwin Liu was first nominated to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on February 9, 2010. Today he'll finally be voted on... kind of. What will be voted on is a cloture resolution triggered Tuesday evening by Harry Reid after a year and a half Republican filibuster of the nominee. In order to get a vote, Reid will need 60 votes, which means at least 7 Republicans (if conservative shill Ben Nelson votes to shut down the debate).

Liu is widely regarded as the most brilliant progressive judicial star and a future Supreme Court nominee who could help balance extreme right radicals and corporate whores on the Court, Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Sammy Alito and Clarence Thomas. And he's only 39. That's why the radical right is more opposed to him than to any of Obama's other nominees. I assume the only way this filibuster is going to get broken is if Reid made a deal to not bring up the Ryan budget in return for the opportunity for a straight up-or-down vote on the nomination. Remember, even wingnuts-- outside of political circles-- say Liu's "qualifications are unassailable." Interestingly, retiring conservative Democrat, Jim Webb (VA), announced that he wouldn't join the GOP filibuster, but that if he gets the chance, he'll vote against Liu's confirmation. Even Kenneth Starr and John Yoo have endorsed Liu's confirmation. (Watch the video below.) Lindsey Graham and John McCain, on the other hand, are both sticking with the filibuster. We'll report the results right here as soon as the Senate votes... later today.



UPDATE: Time For A Recess Appointment

Reid failed to break the Republican filibuster of one of the best-qualified and most brilliant jurists nominated for a judgeship in over a decade. Even Republicans who have long held that filibustering judicial nominations was unconstitutional, voted against the cloture call. The only Republican brave enough to break with the obstructionist GOP leadership was Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). But that didn't bother Miss McConnell, who knew his tireless ally Ben Nelson was in the bag. Nelson was the only Democrat to cross the aisle in the wrong direction. Bear in mind that when the DSCC fundraises on how horrible the Republicans are to block all the president's nominations, a portion of every single dollar you send them, goes to reelect... Ben Nelson. In the end the cloture resolution failed 52-43.

Nelson and the Republicans justified their filibuster by claiming Liu is so terrible that his nomination constitutes the “extraordinary circumstances” benchmark developed by the Gang of 14 as part of the compromise that averted the Republicans’ use of the so-called "nuclear option" to ban the filibuster altogether. Bizarre, considering the Democrats didn't pull that out of the hat for psychotic Bush nominees like Texas extremist Priscilla Owen; William Pryor, who called Roe v Wade “the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history” and urged Congress to consider repealing or amending Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act; Thomas Griffith; and Janice Roger Brown. Senate Democrats are such suckers... or worse.