Today Is A Big Day

Minutes ago, the Senate vote on cloture for the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court fell short of the sixty votes necessary to proceed to a final vote. This means that Democrats have no launched the first successful filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee in fifty years, and the first ever solely along party lines.

As I wrote yesterday, over the past week it became increasingly clear that this was going to happen. Which means that it is, as they say, time to go nuclear. One way or another, Mitch McConnell has to make sure that Gorsuch is confirmed. It is something necessary for the future of the country, the Constitution, and, needless to say, failing to ensure confirmation would be equivalent to McConnell signing his own political death warrant.

Many Republicans have expressed dismay over using the nuclear option. I sympathize. It is not an ideal situation, and it should not have come to this. The filibuster is a valuable tool for the minority party, and the GOP still remembers what it was like to be in the Senate minority. It is a certainty that at some point, they will return to that position, and when that day comes they will wish for a tool like the filibuster. But the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch is too important to leave any option, even the nuclear option, on the table.

The actions taken today will shape the future of the Senate as a deliberative body, and the composition of the Supreme Court for decades to come.