Thread by @jbendery

Mitch McConnell is back to criticizing Ds for subjecting Trump's judge picks to "weeks if not months & months of pointless delays & then pointless cloture votes."

R's abused cloture to delay their *own* judge picks under Obama & then confirmed them anyway huffpost.com/entry/republic…

"It's time to return this body to a more normal and reasonable process ... no matter which party controls the White House!" declares McConnell, just ahead of blowing up Senate rules to confirm Trump's judges more quickly to lifetime court seats he denied to Obama for years. 🇺🇸

"It is time for this sorry chapter to end," says McConnell, who was so Machiavellian about denying Obama the ability to confirm judges that he led Republicans in blocking their *own* nominees and fueled a vacancy crisis on federal courts.

See here: huffpost.com/entry/obama-ju…

Here's a good illustration of how Republicans abused Senate rules to hurt Obama -- the same rules McConnell wants to blow up now to help Republicans. They delayed votes on Obama's picks for ages and then voted for them in the end. Sometimes unanimously. huffpost.com/entry/obama-ju…

Two years into his presidency, Obama was WAY behind past presidents in his total number of lifetime judges being confirmed. Why? Largely because of Republicans abusing Senate rules to block them, even if they actually supported them. huffpost.com/entry/obama-ju…

"This systematic obstruction is unfair to our duly elected president and more importantly, it is disrespectful. Disrespectful to the American people," says McConnell, who wouldn't even give Obama's Supreme Court nominee a hearing or a vote.

"This practice is laying the foundations for a dangerous new norm," warns McConnell. "There is no tradition of grinding delays under threats of filibuster that extends to nominees no one opposes."

Is this really happening? I need to step away from the computer.

"We will try to restore this body back to how it used to function when every president was allowed to get a hearing for their nominees and a vote in the Senate. For 2 centuries we functioned that way," says Sen. Lankford, who apparently forgot he refused both to Merrick Garland.