Tweeting to Maggie Hassan

A recent tweet-reply to my state's junior US Senator, Maggie Hassan:

Background: The cited WaPo article awards three Pinocchios to Bernie Sanders' wriggling attempt to avoid using the word "filibuster" to describe Democratic Party tactics to block Judge Gorsuch's nomination to the Supreme Court. Those are the "rules", he claims. Comments the "fact checker" Glenn Kessler:

Once again: There is no “traditional” 60-vote “standard” or “rule” for Supreme Court nominations, no matter how much or how often Democrats claim otherwise.

I am not sure whether Bernie is calling himself a Democrat this week, but whatever. Senator Maggie's official statement on the nomination copies-n-pastes this unoriginal talking point.

[…] I support maintaining the traditional 60-vote threshold for confirming Supreme Court nominees.

As the WaPo shows, Maggie is using "traditional" in the sense of "conveniently unprincipled and ad hoc".


Last Modified 2018-12-25 3:18 PM EDT