Obama's Trump Card: Breaking the Filibuster

prospect.org — Did a hack conservative judge just lay the groundwork for the end of the filibuster? The road begins not with last week’s D.C. Circuit Court decision, which if upheld would knock out virtually all recess appointments. There’s at least a fair chance that the Supreme Court will overturn this one. But there’s plenty of room for a creative ruling by the Court that would still make it impossible for Obama to use recess appointments for the remainder of his term. So the real question is: What should Obama and the Democrats do in return? The answer is pretty simple. They won the 2012 elections; if Republicans are willing to bust through the normal workings of the courts and the Senate in order to prevent the government from working with Democrats in office, then Democrats really have only one logical response: to threaten to eliminate supermajority requirements for, at least, executive branch confirmations.

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