Senate Republicans filibustered two nominees today for reasons that aren’t clear, leaving you, the general public, to take a wild guess.
Senate Republicans filibustered Mel Watt…
The Senate on Thursday voted 56-42 to proceed to vote on Rep. Mel Watt’s (D-NC) nomination to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency, short of the 60-vote filibuster-proof threshold needed to advance to a final vote.
…and Patricia Millett
Immediately after that vote, Patricia Millett’s bid for a seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals fell five votes shy of 60, leaving the prominent Supreme Court lawyer caught in a Republican filibuster that has nothing to do with her qualifications for the post.
An African American and a woman.
If the GOP could cite a legitimate reason for blocking them, I wouldn’t read that far into it, but as things stand it looks pretty bad.