Senate Passes Filibuster Nuclear Option
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, breaking news, Senate Democrats vote to approve the so-called nuclear option. It's a move that would make the partisan divide up on Capitol Hill even worse. Is it the only way, though, to get the Senate working again as Democrats allege? Also right now, a massive cargo plane is getting ready to take off from an extremely short runway at a Kansas airport where it was never supposed to be in the first place. We're going to show you the challenging feat live this hour. Also right now, the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, riding high. He's the brand-new leader of the Republican Governor's Association. That's a job that could set him up perfectly for 2016. Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting today from Washington. If you think Congress is bitterly divided now, just hold on. Only a few moments ago, the Senate approved what's called the nuclear option, making it easier to end filibusters. It landed like a bomb up on Capitol Hill. And just ahead of the vote, the majority leader, Harry Reid, expressed frustration over Republicans using filibusters to block President Obama's nominees.</s>SEN. HARRY REID (D), MAJORITY LEADER: These nominees deserve at least an up or down vote, yes or no. But Republican filibusters deny them a fair vote, any vote, and deny the president his team. Gridlock has consequences and they're terrible. It's not only bad for President Obama, bad for this body, the United States Senate, it's bad for our country.</s>BLITZER: The minority leader, Mitch McConnell, says Democrats are creating a crisis to distract attention from Obamacare.</s>SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: Millions of Americans are hurting because of a law Washington Democrats forced upon them. And what do they do about it? They cook up some fake fight over judges. A fake fight over judges that aren't even needed.</s>BLITZER: Our Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash is up on Capitol Hill. She's following these dramatic, dare I say historic, developments. Dana, these have huge, huge ramifications. Explain what is going on right now in Congress.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what's going on right now, Wolf, as we speak actually, on the Senate floor is the fruits, if you will, of what the Democrats tried to do. And obviously, Republicans see it a whole different way what Democrats successfully did which is we're seeing a vote to stop a Republican filibuster on an Obama judicial nominee that will only require 51 votes to pass, whereas an hour ago, it required 60 votes to pass. So, we're seeing the first procedural --</s>BLITZER: Republican leader speaking to reporters right now. I want to listen in.</s>MCCONNELL (live): -- for some time now, at the beginning of each of the last two Congresses, we've had a discussion about rules changes. Senator Alexander was right in the middle of those and will give you an update on what happened back in January, just to refresh your memory. But after that, the majority leader said we had set the rules for this Congress. Well, obviously, that was a commitment not kept. We thought he said, if you'd like the Senate rule you can keep them, but, in fact, we ended up having another discussion in July with another threat of the so-called nuclear option, and then you've seen what they've done today. Talk about a manufactured crisis. We've confirmed 215 judges and defeated two. And the problem with regard to the D.C. circuit entirely related to the size of the court and the size of the docket, we took exactly the same views Senate Democrats took during the Bush administration that there was no rationale for extending, for increasing the membership of the D.C. circuit. Exactly the same rational. A letter signed by Schumer, Kennedy, and others saying there's no need for additional judge. We have judicial emergencies in other parts of country. So, this was nothing more than a power grab in order to try to advance the Obama administration's regulatory agenda and, you know, they just broke the Senate rules in order to exercise the power grab. So, I would sum it up by saying it's a sad day in the history of the Senate. After today, advise and consent probably means to them 100 percent consent. Senator Alexander will give you now the statistics on how common a rejection of nominees has been in the past because I think it'll be an eye opener for you -- Lamar.</s>SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R), TENNESSEE: Thanks, Mitch. In my view, this is the most important and most dangerous restructuring of Senate rules since Jefferson wrote them at the beginning of our country. It's really not about the filibuster. It's another raw exercise of political power to permit the majority to do anything it wants whenever it wants to do it. It is Obamacare two in that sense. As Senator Levin said, repeating Senator Vandenberg's words after World War II, a Senate -- a United States Senate without any -- in which the majority can do anything it wants, any time it wants, is a Senate without rules. It would be like the Red Sox falling behind in Boston and saying to the Cardinals, well, we're the home team, so we'll just add a few innings until we can score some runs. This is a Senate without rules. And it's done --</s>BLITZER: So, that's Lamar Alexander and Mitch McConnell, the Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate blasting Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader and the Democrats for dramatically changing the rules of the game. Rules that have been in place for a long time. Dana, they just decided to do this. They passed this change. You no longer need 60 votes to block a presidential nominee. You only need a majority, 51. It's been going -- ever since I've been reporting here in Washington, that filibuster has been in place. The 60-vote requirement has been in place. But now for the first time, it has changed and Democrats are making what point in arguing for this dramatic change, Dana?</s>BASH: It is that they believe it is the president's prerogative to have the nominees that he wants, both in the executive branch and also lifetime appointments for the -- for the bench, judicial appointments. And they argued that that is sort of the way it works, that if a president is nominated by the country -- excuse me, elected by the majority of the country and is in the White House, that is the -- one of the big benefits, the big perks of being in the White House. And certainly, this happened in both Democratic and Republican administrations that they have -- particularly when you're talking about the judicial bench that they've been able to stack the bench with people who fit and form their own ideology. And so, in fact, if you look on the floor of the Senate right now, already Senate Democrats are pushing through the first procedural vote on a judicial nominee, Patricia Millet, for the D.C. circuit under the new rules. So, it will only need 51 votes to overcome a filibuster hurdle, and then go on to be -- to be approved which even Republicans are telling us, based on the new rules, will likely happen before the end of the day.</s>BLITZER: In 19 -- in 2008, Harry Reid swore -- he said -- he said that as a leader of the United States Senate, he said he would never turn to what's called the nuclear option, insisting, and I'm quoting him now, "it would be a black chapter in the history of the Senate." So, how does he defend that dramatic change from what he said in 2008 to what he's saying now and doing now?</s>BASH: Well, we're going to hear from him any minute, actually. He's going to have a press conference and hopefully we'll be able to ask him that question. But until now, asked similar questions, his answer has been that since between 2008 and now, things are different. And he argues that Republicans are a lot more aggressive about holding up the president's nominations, more aggressive about grinding the Senate to a halt. Now, there are certainly a lot of statistics and numbers that Republicans can and are putting forward, arguing that it's not true, that they are not holding up as many or maybe not any -- not as much of a difference between what they're doing and what Democrats did when George Bush was in the White House, for example. So, that is what he's arguing. But, of course, you have Republicans as you just heard from Mitch McConnell arguing that this is political, that Democrats are trying to make a point that they are trying to change the subject and that this is a fake fight. But you can be sure that if it's a fake fight or not, Republicans are going to try to use it to their advantage, too, politically and go back home and argue to the Republican base and those independent voters that Democrats are not being fair. They're changing the rules of the game in a way that benefits them and hurts the rules and the options of the minority in the Senate.</s>BLITZER: Yes. I -- Dana, hold on for a moment. Gloria is here, Gloria Borger, our Chief Political Analyst. Gloria, a lot of Democrats over the years -- they're in the majority now, 55 Democrats, 45 Republicans, but you know that can change. The Democrats can be in the minority. They will then want to use that minority power with a filibuster to stop certain decisions by the majority who could be the Republicans. Historically, Democrats and Republicans, they've always feared</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.</s>BLITZER: -- sooner rather than later.</s>BORGER: You know, where you stand depends where you sit. And that's the argument that a few Democrats had been making. A few Democrats didn't vote for this because they worry about this. And I think what we're seeing here is the extreme partisanship spill over onto everything. And Harry Reid is effectively saying, look, this was minority rule. This wasn't majority rule. It was minority rule in the Senate so we could not get any of these nominations through. Is it a long-term decision, you know? I would argue that in the long term, if you look at the Democratic Party, it's going to be in the minority in the Senate someday. They may regret this. But, but they're at such a point of bottleneck and frustration and a point at which they're not able to get what they believe is a fair number of nominations through, that -- you know, that this occurred. They've come to this brink before and they've avoided it. John McCain kind of worked out a deal. But for some reason now, this nuclear option seemed the only thing for Harry Reid to do. And, you know, again, privately, Democrats are saying, this could be short sighted. I mean, but it just gives you a sense of the partisanship.</s>BLITZER: The poisonous atmosphere here.</s>BORGER: And the worry here is that this only poisons the well even more.</s>BLITZER: All right. We're going to continue the breaking news coverage. Dana is going to be with us. Gloria's with us. Jeffrey Toobin is standing by. Much more. Historic moment here in Washington today. The Democratic Majority in the United States Senate has dramatically changed the rules of the game when it comes to how to get confirmations through. Lots at stake. We'll be right back.