By Mark Rhoads -
A favorite saying of the late State Senate President Cecil A. Partee when he presided over the Senate in Springfield was to talk about the irony of a majority working against its own interests. Partee said, "What goes around comes around." When national Democrats still held a majority in 2013, they voted to change U.S. Senate rules to end the filibuster option to prolong debate in certain circumstances.
They kept the filibuster option for a Supreme Court nomination but got rid of it for other lower judicial nominations. The means that the incoming Republican Administration will be able to nominate as many as 111 candidates to fill judicial vacancies and confirm the appeals court and lower court vacancies with only a simple majority of votes in the Senate instead of 60 percent. So when we consider a legacy for Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada) in future years, we might be able to thank him for out-smarting himself and clearing a path for many more conservative judges on federal benches around the country.
