Democrats plan to weaken the filibuster. That's fine with Jeff.
When asked if he would back a future GOP effort to chip further at the 60-vote threshold, the Oregon progressive said yes. Put those shoes on. How would you feel?
It's not typical for a Democrat to insist that the GOP change the rules to allow a top party priority to pass by a simple majority. The GOP's main goals of tax cuts and judicial confirmations are not likely to benefit from a change to a talking filibuster. Even if Republicans make the first move, he sees Democrats as the long-term beneficiary.
The Democratic Party used to use the filibuster against the GOP majority, but now it's a safe position. Merkley can claim to be at the forefront of that movement. He still loses sleep over the filibuster. He woke up at 3 a.m. on the day that Democrats narrowly failed to install a talking filibuster for elections legislation. He lobbied Manchin on the floor just before the vote.
In the end, Manchin and Sinema sided with the Democrats. The soft-spoken former statehouse speaker is still courting the hold-outs even though he has encouraged potential primary challengers to the two centrists.
I don't want to talk about trying to find more liberal candidates to run against Manchin and Sinema.
A devastating loss on the Senate floor is rare. The 48 52 failure on Wednesday night is a high point in the career of Merkley. There is no one else in the Capitol who is focused on changing the way the Senate operates than Merkley.
The Obama-era charge to scrap the 60-vote threshold on most nominees was led by Merkley and Tom Udall. Four years later, Merkley launched a filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch despite McConnell's blockade of Obama's high court nominee.
McConnell immediately changed the rules to confirm three Supreme Court nominees.
McConnell is unlikely to bend the rules further because of his current situation, in which he has the power to block much of the Democrats' agenda with 41 votes but can confirm Supreme Court justices with a simple majority.
I would be very surprised to see him change a situation that is working well for him.
Since McConnell eliminated the filibuster for high court nominees, Merkley's worked toward the moment his own party could go around the opposition leader.
He must be being fed. Ron Wyden said that he was just living on peanut sandwiches and working around the clock.
He contemplated running for president in 2020 but didn't have many options to differentiate himself. He saw that the Democrats had a wide-open lane to be the filibuster specialist. In dense, technical presentations to his colleagues, the Oregonian tries to explain what is wrong with the Senate as he hacks through byzantine procedure.
He doesn't support getting rid of the filibuster completely, but he does support providing protections for the minority party to extend debate. Since March, when he began interviewing every single Democratic caucus member on the topic, that has helped Merkley make inroads.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was told by Merkley that he had an opportunity on the talking filibuster. The reform that Merkley envisions would allow the party in power to eventually pass legislation by a simple majority, only after the minority had exhausted itself on debate.
Senate floor fights over controversial votes could tie up the floor for weeks or months, which is why this reform would still require bipartisan negotiations. The talking filibuster gained support in the caucus because of his view.
It will take so long for majority parties to overcome the talking filibuster on contentious legislation that votes on major party-line legislation will be rare. The elections bill could take 450 hours of debate time, which is longer than the civil rights debate.
He sees lonely members blocking a majority vote and then quickly backing down on less important legislation. A single member of the Senate can demand a 60-vote threshold vote on most bills with just a call to the cloakroom.
He has compelling evidence that use of the current no-effort filibuster spiraled out of control over the past 20 years, but it is not an easy sell. They didn't take me up on the offer to give President Joe Biden a slide presentation, he said.
He educated Biden's chief of staff, but the president endorsed a talking filibuster.
When the vote came down, 47 of his colleagues sided with him. Chris Coons, his roommate in Washington, observed that he'd had dozens of conversations with Merkley about the same thing he'd had with his roommate.
Sen. Merkley is thoughtful and warm. Coons said that there was a great landlord.
The voting and elections bill that came before the Senate this month was only one of the reasons why Coons endorsed the narrowest change.
Both parties now have a template for the next time they get stymied on a key legislative goal.
McConnell and most Republicans say they won't do it, but having 48 Democrats on record for an end-around the 60-vote requirement will change the playing field going forward.
It sets a precedent and I would remind them that they are the ones who are doing this.
Good news is what Merkley views as a portend. He said that the idea that the minority party can dictate the direction of the Senate is a violation of the philosophy of representative government.
The Senate is broken and it is essential that we fix it. I am convinced that we will.
This report was contributed to by Marianne LeVine.
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