Obama to GOP Senate: 'Ease up on the filibuster, guys.' GOP to Obama: 'Fat chance.'

There are very definite limits to what a charm offensive from even a politician as adept as President Obama can achieve, at least with the current crop of Republicans. He sure as hell isn't going to be able to talk them into letting some of his agenda pass the Senate without drama.

"The president made the pitch that it would be useful to his administration if nominees were more quickly confirmed," said Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) after the president spent more than an hour chatting with the GOP caucus as part of his "charm offensive."

But it seems that Republicans will not relent on bogging down nominees, and also do not agree they are obstructing Obama's picks.

"I think the facts, particularly on judicial nominations, [show] our record is better than [in] other administrations, as far as one party approving the judicial nominations of a differeint party's president," Moran said. [...]

"So the president made the pitch," Moran said. "I don't think it had a lot of credibility with Republican senators."

The "facts" apparently don't encompass the unprecedented filibuster of Chuck Hagel to be secretary of Defense, or the other filibuster of John Brennan at the CIA, or the months long filibuster of any warm body the president might nominate to the CFPB, currently Richard Cordray. Or the 30 filibusters of Obama's judicial nominees in the past four years, five of which ended up permanently blocking nominees.

Appeals from President Obama are the last thing that could possibly work with these guys. The only thing that will is Harry Reid going nuclear and changing Senate rules mid-session. Sign our petition telling him so.