Is The Senate Actually Starting To Function Again?

Monday there were two votes in the Senate on Presdient Obama's nomination of Jeh Johnson to be Secretary of Homeland Security. First came a cloture vote. There were 57 ayes and 37 nays, with 6 Republicans not voting. Under the bad old rules, that would have ended the chance to confirm the first African-American ever nominated to that position. The only Republicans who broke with McConnell and crossed the aisle to vote with the Democrats were Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). That was at 5:59 pm.

Because shutting down a filibuster on most nominations no longer requires 60 votes, 21 minutes later, the Senate voted 78-16 to confirm Johnson. Confused? Here's what happened. The hard core obstructions and racists-- your Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, Ted Cruzes, James Inhofes, Miss McConnells, Mike Lees, etc-- still voted no. But 19 Republicans joined Colins and Murkowski in voting to confirm… 5 more than voted against confirming. 21 minutes before they were playing their childish games to prevent the smooth functioning of government for no apparent reason.

19 of them had every intention of voting to confirm a non-controversial candidate-- unless you consider skin color controversial-- but given the opportunity to filibuster the nomination so it would never come up for a vote… well, isn't that the Republican way! These are the 16 assholes who voted against both cloture and against the final nomination, the worst of the worst:

• John Boozman (R-AR)
• John Cornyn (R-TX)
• Jim Crapo (R-ID)
• Ted Cruz (R-TX)
• Nan Fischer (R-NE)
• Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
• John Hoeven (R-ND)
• James Inhofe (R-OK)
• Mike Lee (R-UT)
• Miss McConnell (R-KY)
• Rob Portman (R-OH)
• Jim Risch (R-ID)
• Marco Rubio (R-FL)
• Mike Scott (R-SC)
• Jefferson B. Sessions III (R-AL)
• Dick Shelby (R-AL)

The Republicans are dysfunctional jerks and don't deserve to be part of government. Harry Reid has also filed for cloture on another 10 nominees the GOP is blocking for no substantive reasons, just to gum up the works and prevent the government from operating efficiently:

• Alejandro Mayorkas, of the District of Columbia, to be Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security
• John Koskinen, of the District of Columbia, to be Commissioner of Internal Revenue Service.
• Brian Davis, of Florida, to be United States District Judge for the District of Florida
• Janet Yellen, of Callifornia, to be Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
• Sloan Gibson, of the District of Columbia, to be Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs
• Sarah Sewall, of Massachusetts, to be an Under Secretary of State (Civility Security, Democracy, and Human Rights)
• Michael Connor, of New Mexico, to be Deputy Secretary of the Interior
• Sarah Bloom Raskin, of Maryland, to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury
• Jessica Garfola Wright, of Pennsylvania, to be Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness
• Richard Engler, of New Jersey, to be a Member of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board