As the Lord of Obstruction, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has long believed he alone gets to decide who does the obstructing and when. McConnell signaled as much last week when he suggested "the American people simply will not tolerate" Democratic opposition to President-elect Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominees. It was a stunning declaration, considering McConnell spent 11 months blocking nomination hearings for President Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, against the will of the American people.

McConnell's convenient new attitude continued this week when he popped up on the polar opposite side of another issue: cabinet confirmation hearings. When Barack Obama took office eight years ago, McConnell sent a sharply worded letter to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid insisting on a full ethics review of each appointee before they would be given a hearing before the Senate. Fair enough—except this time around, McConnell is demanding that Democrats "grow up and get past" Donald Trump's victory, as well as the idea Trump's appointees should meet the same ethics standards.

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That's because the Office of Government Ethics sent a letter to Senate Democrats informing them that McConnell and his Republican allies had scheduled confirmation hearings for Trump's appointees before the Office would have sufficient time to vet them. (This particular group is not to be confused with the House Ethics Committee, which House Republicans tried to dismantle as their first act after being sworn-in.)

For once, Democrats did not allow the opportunity to pass them by. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stuck a finger squarely in McConnell's eye by sending him the exact letter he sent to Harry Reid eight years ago—only with a few names crossed out and updated for the bizarro present.

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You know that ltr McConnell sent Reid in '09 asking for more info before Obama noms were considered? Schumer just sent SAME exact ltr back-> pic.twitter.com/dcYxIYvZNZ — Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) January 9, 2017

This is what you might call a senatorial judo move. It's also exactly the kind of tactic—stern, clear-eyed and easily digestible—that Democrats have often been criticized for lacking. Dems, and Schumer in particular, will need more of the same in the coming years.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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