A few thoughts:

First, this was a horrifying and vicious segment – typical of the Right Wing end zone dance they’ve been doing all day. I’d like to note that Mitch McConnell was actually seen happily doing high fives with Senators and aides on the floor of the Senate in celebration of his maneuver. Which puts the lie to the idea that what he or the Right ever thought this was a “very serious” matter. They didn’t. And McCain is right that someone here thought “Revenge is more important” – and that would be the Right Wing. They don’t get to walk that one back, and they don’t get to just bully other people about it.

Doors is correct that we’ve known all along, from the moment that Trump squeaked through in the swing states, that the GOP theft of the Merrick Garland seat had been sealed. There was no way that the GOP wouldn’t make it a priority to put a Hard Right judge on that seat – as a slap in the face to Garland, to the Dems, and specifically to Barack Obama. They may not have been able to eradicate the ACA yet, but they got this one through.

The Dems had a choice to make here – did they want to roll over on this seat and wait for another Pence nomination to fight, or did they want to stand their ground now and show they had some spine? It’s obvious that they did the only thing they could – they stood up for Garland, and for the fact that the GOP has put a black eye on the Senate, now in two ways. The first black eye came when McConnell and the Right refused to even allow a hearing for Garland, and the second came today when they decided that we no longer need more than a simple majority to get something as important as a Supreme Court seat filled. The result of the second black eye will be pretty much what David is suggesting – when the next Dem president is in office and has a Dem Senate, which I believe will be the case by 2020, the GOP will have no way to obstruct his or her SC nominations. McConnell even slashed the debate period from 30 hours to 8, which means nominations can be fast tracked in a single day.

And for those who haven’t watched the entire speech themselves, Joe Biden did not obstruct a single GOP SC nominee, nor did his full remarks from 1992 say that he would. He said that Bush Sr had acted rudely toward the Dems in the Senate by ramming Clarence Thomas at them, but then he cautioned his own colleagues that it was not realistic to expect Bush to nominate a liberal, and he concluded by saying that the Senate would of course consider anyone Bush sent them – if he observed the basic courtesy that the Senate always extended to him. There is no “Biden Rule” and there never was. There also is no “Schumer Rule”. Chuck Schumer made a 30 minute speech to the American Constitutional Society in 2007 where he discussed how John Roberts and Samuel Alito lied through their confirmation hearings. He mentioned the notion of perhaps there shouldn’t be further hearings if the nominees were going to lie all the way through them, and concluded that the real takeaway for his listeners was that a nomination to the SC shouldn’t be a guarantee, particularly if the nominee wasn’t going to tell the truth. And neither of these discussions had anything to do with any pending nominees for anything. They were hypothetical discussions of how the Dems should respond to bullying and viciousness from the Right. Neither Bush Sr nor Jr nominated anyone to the SC during these periods, and the Dems NEVER EVER refused to hold a hearing for one of their SC nominees. It is a craven, boldfaced LIE that the Right keeps trying to foster, and it doesn’t work if you actually know the history.

Regarding Harry Reid in 2013, it’s obvious that he did what he had to do in order to keep the judiciary functioning. Everyone attacking Reid conveniently forgets that the GOP had just spent FIVE YEARS obstructing everyone and everything they could, just so they could stop the Dems and Obama from accomplishing anything. And that included judicial appointments. The only people that got through were the two SC nominees up to that point from Obama, and those were only due to the Dems having the 60 votes. If the Dems had only had 52 votes in 2009, I guarantee that the GOP would have filibustered both Sotomayor and Kagan out of sheer spite. Those two didn’t get through because the GOP was trying to give Obama a chance – they got through because the GOP didn’t have a choice at that moment.

But regardless of Reid’s actions, the bullying move today by McConnell wasn’t generated by Reid. Reid is retired and living back in Nevada, I expect. The Dems had no control over what McConnell did. This move was completely on the GOP. I really don’t understand why they don’t just own it. I realize that they want to pose as being serious, mature adults on these matters, but McConnell and the others have already exposed their true faces. (Interesting that Pence usually smirks with glee every time one of these really terrible cabinet people gets in or another vicious EO gets signed…)

I’d also like to correct some nonsensical statements made by both Dems and GOP pundits alike on this matter. Filibustering Gorsuch was not an act of revenge – it was an act of dignified statesmanship. It took courage by the Dems to do that, including several Dems who are in states where they will need to campaign very hard to win their re-election next year. I have a feeling the Dems who showed some spine, like McCaskill, will have a better time of it than the ones who caved.

But there’s another myth running through here – that the Dems could have done better by holding their fire and waiting for the next SC nominee, particularly if the Right Wing’s dream happens and one of the older liberal justices retires. Supposedly, the idea was that the Dems should cave now, and then in that event, raise Hell to protect a liberal seat. And here’s how that would play out: If the Dems had caved this week, we’d hear nothing but gloating from Fox News and AM Radio – about how the Dems were too weak and scattered to be able to resist this situation, and about how the GOP was so happy to be able to fill Scalia’s seat with a true conservative. (BTW – Scalia was no “lion of the Court” – that title went to a true legend like Thurgood Marshall. Scalia was a crank throughout his time on the SC, and occasionally a dangerous one.) And let’s say that the Pence White House got an opportunity to replace Breyer in another year, and the Dems went to the mattresses when Trump happily named William Pryor. Does anyone really think McConnell would just sit back and say “You know what? You’re right! Let’s get Trump to name a better person!”? Obviously, McConnell would just pull this maneuver then – and he’d hope that the Dems’ failure to filibuster Gorsuch would indicate they were too weak to pull one together about Breyer. So the Dems just got the Right to reveal their intentions on an earlier timetable.

The reality is that the Right Wing has been looking forward to having this opportunity to bully the rest of the country, and they were not going to be denied the delicious moment or the weeks of victory dances. They have acted in a shameful manner for the past 14 months, and that history will record their behavior.

Didn’t take Trump and his buddies in Congress long to run our democracy down the shitter. Some things these cockroaches do can’t be undone.

The two edged sword. And this hari kari can be placed squarely at the feet of republicans. They garunteed the filibuster of their first nominee by screwing over Merrick Garland. I think the republicans are gonna be crying about this sooner than they think. But it’s finally done. After about 24 years of threatening this it is done at their hands. And when they cry about it, democrats should rub salt in the wound vigorously!

You knew when the hearings started a couple of weeks ago that what happen today would be the end result.

This seat was successfully stolen. They know that.