April 03, 2017 10:10 AM UTC

Bennet Won't Filibuster Gorsuch And It's Not Time To Panic (Yet)

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Senate Democrats apparently have enough votes to sustain a filibuster against Gorsuch, even without Bennet.

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The story this morning from the Denver Post’s Mark Matthews is not going to make Sen. Michael Bennet’s Democratic base here in Colorado very happy:

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet won’t support a filibuster of Judge Neil Gorsuch, describing Democratic efforts to block the Colorado native as taking the Senate in the “wrong direction.”

But the Colorado Democrat still won’t say whether he’ll actually vote to put the 10th Circuit of Appeals judge on the U.S. Supreme Court — even though a full Senate vote is expected Friday.

“Using the filibuster and nuclear option at this moment takes us in the wrong direction,” Bennet said in a statement.

The Colorado Independent’s Mike Littwin was first to report the news:

“I don’t think it’s wise for our party to filibuster this nominee or for Republicans to invoke the nuclear option,” Bennet says.

That makes him the fourth Democratic senator to break from the ranks, and the only one from a state that voted against Donald Trump. Republicans still need four more Democrats to defect to block a filibuster, and, at this point, it seems unlikely they’ll get them.

This vote was always going to be a lose-lose proposition for Bennet. He would either have to enrage the Democratic base with a decision that looks like heresy — which is what he’s done — or vote against a fellow Coloradan who is strongly supported by the downtown legal and business establishment, which, not coincidentally, generally supports Bennet. Gov. John Hickenlooper laid out the case when he said he wouldn’t blame Democrats for trying to delay or block Gorsuch after the Merrick Garland fiasco, but that he was “honored” a Coloradan as talented as Gorsuch was nominated.

There’s no question that the left in Colorado, who has put tremendous pressure on Bennet to set aside the geographic and other ties to Neil Gorsuch and oppose his nomination, will be irate over his decision not to join the filibuster. But as Littwin points out, it appears that Democrats will have the forty-one votes they need to proceed without him, and if that count is secure it’s entirely possible that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer gave Bennet a pass–to appease locals who don’t want him to block Gorsuch outright.

With all of that in mind, the real question for Bennet becomes how he will vote in the likely event Republicans crush the Democratic filibuster by invoking the so-called “nuclear option,” which will bypass the 60-vote requirement to proceed to the Senate floor for the confirmation vote. Gorsuch’s judicial record and well-documented right-wing political views put him so far at odds with Bennet and Democrats that a vote to confirm him would be a very serious breach of faith with his base, and would leave Bennet vulnerable to attack from his left every time Gorsuch makes an adverse ruling.

It’s not our intention to shield Bennet from criticism over what most Democrats will consider to be the wrong decision–some egregiously. It’s just important to keep all the moving parts in this battle in their proper perspective. This was an important moment for Bennet to stand up for his stated values, and he didn’t.

But it’s not his last chance to do so. So stay tuned until the end.