McConnell caves, Dems now actually running the Senate

Every two years, when a new U.S. Congress takes office, one of the first orders of business is getting organized. The House passes its “rules,” while the Senate passes an “organizing resolution.” The Senate resolution says who will be on what committees, who the chairs will be (all members of the majority), and other parts of the groundwork of the body. It’s normally passed easily and quickly, except when the Senate is evenly split, in which case it’s negotiated and then passed.

Except not this year. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer proposed that the Senate adopt the same setup as the last time the Senate was 50-50 … but Minority Leader Mitch McConnell refused. The Dems had to add a clause saying publicly they would not get rid of the filibuster. And Schumer refused to do that.

So, even though the Democrats won majority status on January 5th, the Senate has remained as it was in December, with Republicans still chairing the committees and no agreement on the organizing resolution. Essentially, McConnell was using the 60-vote filibuster rule to block the Dems.

Last night, on the Rachel Maddow Show, Maddow was interviewing Senator Schumer, and she brought up this issue and asked him what he and the Dems could do about it. Schumer smiled and said he had given Senator McConnell a deadline to agree to the resolution as it was (with no promise on keeping the filibuster), and if McConnell didn’t budge, Schumer and the Dems had a plan. Pressed on what the plan was, Schumer just smiled a little more and said “Stay tuned.”

We didn’t have to stay tuned very long, because as the interview was airing, McConnell released a statement saying he was dropping his opposition to the organizing resolution.

McConnell is trying to spin this as a win for him by saying he was dropping his opposition because two Democratic senators had “promised” not to throw out the filibuster. But, those two Dems had been saying that on the record for weeks. So, that hadn’t changed.

There is much speculation, then, as to why McConnell gave in. It could be as simple as McConnell was bluffing, and knew it, and Schumer called his bluff. It could be tied in some way to the upcoming Trump trial. Or, it could be that Schumer let McConnell know that if McConnell didn’t relent, he (Schumer) was prepared to take actions that would harm McConnell’s minority in some way. What actions? No one is saying … but Schumer’s calm attitude about it during the interview seems to indicate that he knew he had the better poker hand.

Whatever the case, at this point the Senate will truly move into Democratic control. Schumer issued this statement:

“We’re glad Senator McConnell threw in the towel and gave up on his ridiculous demand. We look forward to organizing the Senate under Democratic control and start getting big, bold things done for the American people.”

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