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By the time he decided to “go nuclear” on filibusters for most presidential appointees, Harry Reid had had it with Republicans.
The obstruction that finally pushed the Democratic leader to change the Senate’s rules in 2013 was the GOP’s refusal to consider three of President Barack Obama’s DC Circuit Court picks. But his frustration with Republican blockades had been building for months.
There was the GOP effort to sink Chuck Hagel, the former Republican senator-turned-defense secretary nominee; the attempts to stymie Richard Cordray, the nominee to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; and the opposition to Sharon Block and Richard Griffin, two appointees to the National Labor Relations Board.
“I had no choice,” Reid told Vox in a May interview. “They stuck by their guns opposing everything [Obama] tried to do. And that’s where I found myself.”
It’s a place where current Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer could soon find himself, too.