WASHINGTON ― Senate Republicans failed Tuesday to change the rules to make it easier to confirm most of President Donald Trump’s nominees. Senators voted 51-48 on a resolution to reduce the amount of time they spend debating most nominees ― district court judges and lower-level executive nominees ― from 30 to two hours. Every Republican but one, Sen. Mike Lee (Utah), voted for the resolution. Every Democrat opposed it. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) was absent. But because the resolution needed 60 votes to move forward, it failed, as expected. Now it’s on to round two: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) plans to use the so-called “nuclear option” to make the rule change with a simple majority, or 51 votes. McConnell will begin that process as soon as Wednesday, per his spokesman. Ahead of the vote, Republicans complained about Democrats delaying votes on too many of Trump’s nominees and said the rule change is warranted. “This behavior is novel,” said McConnell. “It’s a break from Senate tradition.” “We should respect each other,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). “No one can lock up the body and demand 30 hours of time” on a nominee if they don’t use all of that time, he said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already made it easier for Republicans to confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominees and circuit court nominees, so now he's trying to make it easier to confirm his district court nominees, too.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) says Democrats' obstruction of Trump's nominees is "historic." Apparently, he doesn't remember how his party treated Obama's nominees, including Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, who was denied a hearing and a vote.

Some blamed Democrats for changing the rules first in 2013, when they controlled the Senate and got rid of the filibuster for most judicial nominees. “The difference is we’re in control of the Senate and they’re not,” said Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). But Democrats changed the rules in response to McConnell abusing parliamentary procedures to delay and block Obama’s judicial nominees for years, many of whom Republicans actually supported and voted for after blocking them. The reason McConnell wants to make it easier to confirm Trump’s district judges is because he’s already made it easier to confirm all of Trump’s other judicial nominees. He used the nuclear option to lower the vote threshold for confirming Trump’s Supreme Court picks from 60 to a simple majority. He’s endorsed repeated violations of the “blue slip” rule for circuit court nominees, a Senate tradition of only moving forward with a judicial nominee when both home state senators sign off on it. It’s all part of McConnell’s plan to use Trump’s presidency to put piles of young, anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ, anti-voting rights ideologues into lifetime federal court seats before Trump is up for re-election in 2020.

The difference is we’re in control of the Senate and they’re not. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.)