Dem
49
GOP
51
Last week, Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) showed off his inner Republican, endorsing former governor Larry Hogan (R) in Maryland's U.S. Senate race. This week, he's back to being a Democrat, in a way that will gladden the hearts of the blue team. He's dropped his personal "rule" that he would no longer vote to confirm judges unless those judges got at least one Republican vote.
You never know what's going on in the head of the inscrutable West Virginian, but the catalyst here appears to be the nomination of Kevin Ritz for the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Ritz got no Republican votes, and was going to go down to defeat. However, Manchin discovered—surprise!—that his Republican colleagues were not acting in good faith, and their opposition had nothing to do with Ritz's qualifications. So, the Senator voted in favor of the nomination, and apparently will no longer be guided by what the Republicans do.
Assuming Manchin sticks with that—and you never know with him—it's a huge relief to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). The Democrats' tiebreaking vote is largely not available right now, since President of the Senate Kamala Harris is busy, you know, running to be President Kamala Harris. So, Schumer was going to try to perform a delicate ballet wherein he brought up judges for a vote while one or more Republicans were absent from the Senate. Now, the Majority Leader is lining up a whole bunch of judges for approval on a party-line vote, before Manchin can change his mind. If Schumer can get every judge who has already been nominated through the process, then there will be a total of 241 Biden judges, as compared to the 234 Trump judges. (Z)