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April 03, 2017 10:10 AM UTC

Bennet Won't Filibuster Gorsuch And It's Not Time To Panic (Yet)

  • 39 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Sen. Michael Bennet (D).

UPDATE: Senate Democrats apparently have enough votes to sustain a filibuster against Gorsuch, even without Bennet.

—–

The story this morning from the Denver Post’s Mark Matthews is not going to make Sen. Michael Bennet’s Democratic base here in Colorado very happy:

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet won’t support a filibuster of Judge Neil Gorsuch, describing Democratic efforts to block the Colorado native as taking the Senate in the “wrong direction.”

But the Colorado Democrat still won’t say whether he’ll actually vote to put the 10th Circuit of Appeals judge on the U.S. Supreme Court — even though a full Senate vote is expected Friday.

“Using the filibuster and nuclear option at this moment takes us in the wrong direction,” Bennet said in a statement.

The Colorado Independent’s Mike Littwin was first to report the news:

“I don’t think it’s wise for our party to filibuster this nominee or for Republicans to invoke the nuclear option,” Bennet says.

That makes him the fourth Democratic senator to break from the ranks, and the only one from a state that voted against Donald Trump. Republicans still need four more Democrats to defect to block a filibuster, and, at this point, it seems unlikely they’ll get them.

This vote was always going to be a lose-lose proposition for Bennet. He would either have to enrage the Democratic base with a decision that looks like heresy — which is what he’s done — or vote against a fellow Coloradan who is strongly supported by the downtown legal and business establishment, which, not coincidentally, generally supports Bennet. Gov. John Hickenlooper laid out the case when he said he wouldn’t blame Democrats for trying to delay or block Gorsuch after the Merrick Garland fiasco, but that he was “honored” a Coloradan as talented as Gorsuch was nominated.

There’s no question that the left in Colorado, who has put tremendous pressure on Bennet to set aside the geographic and other ties to Neil Gorsuch and oppose his nomination, will be irate over his decision not to join the filibuster. But as Littwin points out, it appears that Democrats will have the forty-one votes they need to proceed without him, and if that count is secure it’s entirely possible that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer gave Bennet a pass–to appease locals who don’t want him to block Gorsuch outright.

With all of that in mind, the real question for Bennet becomes how he will vote in the likely event Republicans crush the Democratic filibuster by invoking the so-called “nuclear option,” which will bypass the 60-vote requirement to proceed to the Senate floor for the confirmation vote. Gorsuch’s judicial record and well-documented right-wing political views put him so far at odds with Bennet and Democrats that a vote to confirm him would be a very serious breach of faith with his base, and would leave Bennet vulnerable to attack from his left every time Gorsuch makes an adverse ruling.

It’s not our intention to shield Bennet from criticism over what most Democrats will consider to be the wrong decision–some egregiously. It’s just important to keep all the moving parts in this battle in their proper perspective. This was an important moment for Bennet to stand up for his stated values, and he didn’t.

But it’s not his last chance to do so. So stay tuned until the end.

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39 thoughts on “Bennet Won’t Filibuster Gorsuch And It’s Not Time To Panic (Yet)”

      1. Thanks for playing along "V". We have to keep the Obama corruption as the top thread. Pols will come up with any boring thread to keep the Obama spying from being listed first.

      1. if these effing Democrats would actually fight for some key principles and quit waiting for the Moderate/Unicorn vote to appear (as CPols and almost every other Establishment Consultant predicts) then Colorado actually could turn blue for a generation.

        Instead he twiddles his thumbs and wets his pants, and is never around when any key progressive issue is addressed.

          1. I've done plenty of that stuff for plenty of candidates. They all were far more deserving of my support than this guy and they were all unabashed Democrats.

            This guy was a cynical pick by Ritter in '08, for which I'll never forgive the governor. Bennet surely thought he could play it safe (can't we all be bipartisan?), earn easy money (a cool $Million per term), and be in the senate for life with little worry.

            Turns out he's going to have to earn it and fight for something to keep it. 

            I'll be waiting………………..

            1. And waiting and waiting and waiting.  His term isn't up until 2020, even assuming he isn't president warrens veep in 2020, as someone suggested here the other day.

              1. What's a "key progressive issue?"  Funny that those who don't want Gorsuch confirmed have no other option other than to leave the seat open for four years.

                Bennet is very good on public lands and other conservation/environmental issues. Just because he dares to not toe the radical far left line is no big deal for me. 

  5. IMO this is a huge mistake. Bennet should pay a price for refusing the filibuster alone.

    But if he votes to confirm Gorsuch, he must be primaried in 2022. It is too great a violation.

  6. He is safe for the next six years.  Dems. already have the votes to filibuster so he doesn't have to burn any bridges with local groups over it yet.  Let him keep his powder dry until the actual vote takes place.

  7. Disappointing.  I'm sure those of us in Centennial who worked hard for Senator Bennet starting in 2010 and again in 2016 (and had 161 participants at an Indivisible meeting before the Inauguration) will be equally disappointed. 

    Six years is a long time, but we have long memories…..

    1. There are also a raft of issues where Bennet was very clearly a better choice than Daryl Glenn.  Hope you have more than a selective long term memory.

    2. I have a long memory also and will continue to support Bennet both with my vote, as well as financially, unless my party can come up with a common sense conservative superstar. And, no, I don't mean Tim Neville or Jerry Sonnenberg. 

      1. Scuttlebutt is that Neville is going to give up his senate seat to run for governor.  A Colorado Brownback and I'm not talking about trout.

        1. Eeww! Really G.G.? I don't think he's got much of a shot anywhere but Frackistan, And aren't the R's stacking up a pretty crowded primary? What's he got to sell to differentiate himself from the rest of the pack?

            1. In conversations with vague folks with forgotten names his analysis of his failure last year is that he didn't devote enough time to running so he didn't raise money or raise his profile.  To change his fortunes he is going to resign from the Senate and dedicate himself full time to sucking up to every gun nut who believes that the Newtown shooting was staged for political benefit.  We'll see if he gives up a safe reelection bid for the risk of more power (no public servant for this guy) but also the possibility that he gets nothing.

              1. Almost makes me regret giving up my contrarian Republican registration.

                But once we quit doing precinct elections (I was R my wife was D, so we could work the same precinct) I had no reason to keep it. Now I wish I could throw in my nickle’s-worth on that primary.

  8. I can remember in the waning days of summer how I was repeatedly admonished to vote for Democrats because:

    THE SUPREME COURT!!!!

    Well, despite vomiting a little, I had their back and voted for them. It's too bad they won't return the favor.

    1. I hate to tell you this Jim.  The Republicans won the presidency and the Senate.   Notwithstanding Colorado, where we really did appreciate the help of you and others of the left, that means Republicans will get away with stealing Garland's seat.   Good to see you posting again, btw.

        2. That would fit Bennet's M.O. Take a "principled stand" that makes no difference, when it's too-little-too-late. Remember his 2009 "I'll vote for health care reform even if it costs me my seat" rhetoric?

          Remember when he strongly endorsed a public option health plan in 2010? Hell, he was going to save the public option. He said so.

          But he was one of the first to cave when single payer was negotiated away before negotiations on the ACA had even begun. And he was definitely about cutting Medicare, not expanding it to be "Medicare for all" in 2010 – 2011.

          Fast forward to 2016, when Bennet's campaign spokesman Zucker said, "Michael does not think that single payer is the right approach to solving our health care problems"

          If you try to track Michael Bennet on the issues of health care, you'll get whiplash. That's what happens when your senator is a weathervane.

          So I expect very little from Senator Michael Bennet in terms of a principled stand…on anything. It totally depends on his donors and his reading of the political odds.

           

  10. Remember that time….(quoting Brietbart just for you, PeePee)

    Ted Cruz Floats Leaving Scalia’s Supreme Court Seat Vacant if Hillary Clinton Becomes President

    Cruz isn’t the first Republican Senator to float the idea of the GOP continuing to block SCOTUS picks if Hillary wins.

    Early in October, Arizona Senator John McCain noted that the GOP “will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up,” and continue to block any new SCOTUS picks.

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