Thread - A theory on why Sen. McConnell plans to break the Judiciary Committee Rules to "report out" the Barrett nomination, rather than making a discharge motion.

Short answer - it is all about preserving Majority Leader control over bottling matters up in Committee. 1/9

The Democrats have announced that they will not provide a quorum in the Judiciary Committee for the vote on the Barrett nomination tomorrow. Under Judiciary Committee rules, two members of the minority are required to do business. 2/9

That would bottle up the nomination in the Judiciary Committee and deny Judge Barrett a vote. The countermove, if the rules were followed, would be for Sen. McConnell to file a discharge motion. Such a motion has to be held over for one day before it can be acted upon. 3/9

There would be an opportunity for the Democrats to impose delay when the Senate comes into session for the new legislative day. More importantly, the discharge motion would be "debatable," meaning that cloture would have to be invoked. 4/9

Under current Senate rules (according to the most recent CRS report), 60 votes are needed to invoke cloture on a discharge motion. McConnell could use the nuclear option to overrule the Parliamentarian. That would require 51 votes -- after 30 hours of debate. 5/9

If the Parliamentarian is overruled, that would set the precedent for discharge motions. In the future, it would only take a majority to invoke cloture. The ability of the Majority Leader to kill in committee nominations that have majority support would be diminished. 6/9

Rather than follow the rules (which would take two extra Parliamentary Days and diminish the Majority Leader's power), the Senate Republicans are going to just gavel over the lack of quorum in Judiciary Committee. 7/9

If the Democrats raise this rule violation and the Presiding Officer holds that the nomination has not been properly reported out, McConnell will use the Nuclear Option to overrule. This will effectively end minority quorum protections in committee. 8/9

Getting rid of minority quorum protections in committee only enhances the power of the Majority Leader. Since the only downside for McConnell and Graham is a loss of integrity (and you can't go below zero), they apparently are ready to break the rules. 9/9

Coda - There is no intellectually honest distinction between these rule violations and a future end of the filibuster (both effectuated by the nuclear option). I plan to link to this thread if/when the Dems end the filibuster and the GOP complains that this violates the rules.