Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said he is okay with Democrats launching a filibuster against the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch because Republicans will then be able to kill the practice for good.
"I'm fine with what the Democrats are doing – that's because I think the filibuster should be abolished in its entirety," Fleischer, who served under President George W. Bush, told Monday's "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV. "The filibuster has now become such a regularly worn tool that it's taught people how to oppose and how to block instead of how to get anything done.
"All the rewards are in Washington for . . . which party can block the other party as opposed to recognizing that the American people have spoken. We're a majority-rules nation and when you have a majority, you should be able to get things done whether you're a Democrat or a Republican."
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Fleischer said a filibuster will likely trigger Republicans to invoke the so-called "nuclear option," a parliamentary procedure that allows the Senate to override the Democrats by a simple majority of 51 votes, instead of by a supermajority of 60 votes.
"I welcome this frankly, and I hope it will lead to the nuclear option, and it certainly will for the Supreme Court nominations, but I hope it does the same thing for legislation," Fleischer told host Steve Malzberg.
"We have so tied each other in knots. Democrats did to Republicans. Republicans did to Democrats. The nation is no longer served by those who get elected. They can't serve, because everything they do is blocked and hindered. The system's not working.
"If you would abolish the filibuster for legislation as well, you'd actually return to an era where people worked better together and compromised more because they realized now it's going to get signed into law, so they might as well do the best they can to improve the bill."
Fleischer, president of Fleischer Sports Communications, added the filibuster was once a "rarely used device" employed by both parties for much of the history of the Senate.
"Now it's used standardly," he added. "Its meaning has been distorted. The purpose of it has been obliterated. It is now the device that teaches people that if you get elected to the Senate your job is to block and oppose. It's not to get anything done, and that's the problem.
"You're pointing it out when a reasonable man like Neil Gorsuch can't even get 60 votes because of the Democrat objections. What makes you think anything can get 60 votes? So what are we going to do, wait until the next election?
"There will be times where the Democrats benefit, and there's times where the Republicans benefit, but at all times the principle majority rules benefit."
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