It didn't get much attention yesterday, but Senate Democrats -- for the first time -- made a decision to move forward with one of Biden's U.S. appeals court nominees over the objections of that nominee's home-state GOP senators.

Payback time. huffpost.com/entry/dick-dur…
It was a longstanding tradition in the Senate Judiciary Committee: If a judicial nominee's home-state senators didn't turn in "blue slips" signaling they were ready to proceed, that nominee didn't move.

It was a bipartisan courtesy.
But Republicans ignored that committee tradition for appeals court nominees when Trump was president and when the GOP controlled the Senate.

18 times, to be exact.
The GOP's decision to do that resulted in 17 of Trump's appeals court picks sailing through the committee and to confirmation over Dem objections that previously would have been honored.

On Weds, Dems showed they're going to do this now, too.
huffpost.com/entry/dick-dur…
"Republicans chose to abandon this senatorial courtesy,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chair of the committee.

“Simply put, there shouldn’t be one set of rules for Republican nominees under a Republican president and a different set for nominees under a different president."
Democrats are ignoring GOP senators' objections to Andre Mathis, Biden’s pick for a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.

Neither of his home-state senators, Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, turned in their blue slips.

Dems say sorry not sorry.
That didn’t stop Blackburn from complaining.

Biden’s White House “has made it clear that they intend to eliminate the role of home-state senators in the nomination process," she said.

She also said there was “no meaningful consultation" with the WH on Mathis.

About that...
A quick review shows Blackburn consistently voted to confirm Trump’s appeals court nominees who didn’t have blue slips turned in by Democratic home-state senators.

Since she became a senator in 2019, Blackburn voted for all 14 of Trump’s appeals court picks missing blue slips.
Blackburn also voted to confirm all of those Trump appeals court nominees over the objections of home-state Democratic senators who argued they had not been "meaningfully consulted" by the White House on their nominations. huffpost.com/entry/dick-dur…
Beyond her protests over the process, Blackburn said she opposes Biden's nominee Andre Mathis -- who'd be the first Black man on the Sixth Circuit from Tennessee -- and referenced his "a rap sheet" of three speeding tickets from 10+ years ago. huffpost.com/entry/marsha-b…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Jennifer Bendery

Jennifer Bendery Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @jbendery

12 Jan
GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn goes after one of Biden's Black judicial nominees for having "a rap sheet" of citations, which was actually just three speeding tickets from 10+ years ago.

One was for going 5 miles over the speed limit. huffpost.com/entry/marsha-b…
A rap sheet = a criminal record.

Andre Mathis, Biden's nominee to a lifetime seat on a U.S. appeals court, does not have a criminal record.

He once got a ticket for going 5 miles over the speed limit, though. Why, I wonder?
Blackburn: "If Mr. Mathis thought he was above the law before, imagine how he’ll conduct himself if he’s confirmed as a federal judge.”

Also remember that time Blackburn got outta the car and flashed her congressional pin to a cop after being pulled over? huffpost.com/entry/marsha-b…
Read 8 tweets
12 Jan
Dick Durbin opens this morning's Judiciary Committee hearing by saying he's moving forward with an appeals court nominee from Tennessee without a blue slip from his state's two GOP senators.

"Republicans chose to abandon this senatorial courtesy."
After some back and forth with Dem and GOP senators, Durbin says the next few years will be Dems "trying to balance the books" with blue slip rules, but perhaps they can agree to a standard for after 2024 that everyone is happy with.
Marsha Blackburn says one of her concerns with this TN appeals court nominee, Andre Mathis, is his "rap sheet" including 3 speeding tickets 10+ years ago.

One was for 5mph over the speed limit.

Durbin: "If speeding tickets are a rap sheet, I've got one too."
Read 9 tweets
10 Jan
Local Alaska interviewer: We're doing ranked choice voting now. It's very different. People might get confused by the ballot. What's your campaign strategy gonna be?

Lisa Murkowski, who won Senate reelection in 2010 via a fuckin write-in campaign: Hold my beer.
"This is going to look a little bit different," Murkowski says of ranked choice voting ballots. "Just looking different shouldn't intimidate anybody."

"Our effort needs to be to make it more familiar to people, to be there to answer the questions they have."
Murkowski talks a bit about her 2010 write-in campaign, which remains one of the most incredible political comebacks I've ever seen.

The two-step strategy was to get people to 1) spell her name right and 2) fill in the oval.

"Our campaign motto was 'fill it in, write it in.'"
Read 6 tweets
5 Jan
RICHMOND, VA - Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin today announced he has chosen Andrew Wheeler as the next Secretary of Natural Resources.

As in, this Andrew Wheeler: huffpost.com/entry/epa-andr…
As in, the same Andrew Wheeler who is a former coal lobbyist who downplayed the threat of climate change during his Senate confirmation hearing when Trump tapped him to lead the EPA. huffpost.com/entry/epa-andr…
As in, the same Andrew Wheeler who dismissed climate change as something "50 to 75 years out" huffpost.com/entry/andrew-w…
Read 4 tweets
5 Jan
It's been a year since 147 Republicans voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election after fueling a lie about widespread voter fraud.

I asked all of them if they think Biden fairly won and if they regret their vote.

Nearly all declined to answer. huffpost.com/entry/january-…
Some reactions from Republican senators when I asked if they believe -- more than a year later -- that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.

Ted Cruz: "Call our press office."

What?
This was not awkward.
Read 19 tweets
4 Jan
Why does Daniel Tiger wear a sweater and sneakers but no pants?
All of Daniel's friends and members of his community wear pants or dresses.

He just walks around with no pants on.
Daniel's dad also walks around wearing a sweater and shoes but no pants.

Everyone else is fully clothed.

Is this not concerning to friends in Daniel Tiger's neighborhood?
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(