Senate leadership wondering what to do now on filibuster

Slow learners. Three high-profile filibusters have convinced Senate Democrats that Republicans had their fingers crossed behind their backs when they promised to stop using the filibuster except in "extraordinary" circumstances. According to a Senate aide who spoke with TPM's Brian Beutler, these filibusters have Democrats trying to figure out what to do about it.

'The general agreement was that Republicans would only filibuster nominees in the case of extraordinary circumstances, and once again Republicans are expanding the definition of that term to make it entirely meaningless,' the aide said.

The source said conversations are still too preliminary for Democrats to lay out publicly potential avenues of recourse just yet. And the last thing leaders want is to create the expectation that they will change the filibuster rules in the middle of the current Senate session. But they are occurring in the wake of a series of GOP filibusters of top nominees, including a cabinet secretary (Chuck Hagel), the CIA director (John Brennan), and a federal judicial nominee (Caitlin Halligan) whom Republicans have effectively blocked from confirmation to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for years. [emphasis added]

Add on top of that the ongoing threat to block Richard Cordray from the CFPB from taking office because the Republicans just don't like the CFPB, and Harry Reid and his leadership team have come around to the understanding that nothing has changed. It took all of a month for Republicans to prove that.

The same Democrats who were queasy about passing real, effective filibuster reform at the beginning of the session are going to be just as queasy about doing what has to be done now. The first thing leadership should be doing is sending the message that they're willing to go nuclear, to change the filibuster rules mid-session. Because that's the only thing that might make Republicans shape up. But the threat has to be credible, after Reid's big capitulation on the rules change in January. The only way to make it credible is to say you're going to do it. It's time.

Please sign our petition urging Harry Reid to re-open the process of filibuster reform in the Senate.