Senate recess cut short - Political and Diabolical

Today (June 5, 2018), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cut short the traditional August recess for senators from four weeks to just one.  He cited the need to make progress on nominees and appropriations legislation.  But those aren't the real reasons he made this movie.  These people are the reasons.

Missouri Senator Claire McKaskill
Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly
North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin III
Florida Senator Bill Nelson
Montana Senator Jon Tester
Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown
Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey

Nine of the ten most vulnerable incumbent members of the United States Senate will now have their time for campaigning back home cut by 75%.  Or they can open themselves up to criticism for being at home campaigning rather than doing their jobs in Washington, D.C.  The first five names on that list are involved in contests that are considered to be "toss-ups."

The Senate seats where there will be elections in November heavily favor Republicans retaining control of the "upper house."  There are 35 elections for Senate seats, 26 where the seat is currently held by a Democrat and only nine where the seat is currently held by a Republican.

It is entirely accurate that fewer nominees submitted by Donald Trump have been confirmed versus the pace for nominees of President Obama and President Bush.  It is also true that when the Democrats made their ill-advised move in the Senate in 2013 to limit the ability of Republicans to obstruct President Obama's nominees by changing the rules of the Senate.  The rules change allowed for a vote to invoke cloture (a time limit on the process).  At that time the Republicans cried "foul" and took advantage of Senate Rule XXII.  That allows for 30 hours of post-cloture debate and Senate Democrats are availing themselves of those hours, as Republicans did when they were the minority party.

There are two other factors involved in the glacial pace of Trump's nominees being confirmed.  The non-partisan Partnership for Public Service tracks the progress of presidential nominees.  They have identified 640 of the more than 1,200 positions requiring Senate confirmation as "key" posts.  As of March 16, 2018, Trump had not submitted nominations for over 200 of those key positions.

Senator McConnell has every right to do what he did.  But we cannot fail to identify it as what it is.  A move to influence the outcome of key elections this November.