The Latest on Hagel

Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly:

The situation with the Hagel nomination is pretty murky at the moment. A filibuster is underway, and Harry Reid has (a) scheduled a cloture vote for tomorrow morning and (b) admitted he doesn't have the 60 votes for cloture just yet. A lot of what happens seems to be in the hands of John McCain, who has flip-flopped on the appropriateness of a filibuster a couple of times in the last couple of days. The last indication was that he was "satisfied" with the Benghazi information the White House had supplied (his little friend Lindsey Graham's little red wagon) but was still working on Ted Cruz's demands for more info on Hagel's speech income.

...I don't know how this will turn out, but I'm with Greg Sargent: if these bozos go where they seem to be headed, it is time for Harry Reid to revive the specter of actual filibuster reform, not the token measures taken in his agreement with Mitch McConnell. Some think Reid foreclosed the "constitutional option" for unilateral filibuster reform agreement until next year or perhaps 2015. But he needs to pick up the threat for real, shake it at Senate Republicans, and mean it.

By way of reminder, Chuck Hagel is a Republican.

Steve Kornacki notes that filibustering a cabinet nominee (no less one of one's own party) is extremely rare: "Hagel is on course to be the first Pentagon nominee and only the third Cabinet nominee ever to face a 60-vote requirement for confirmation. But even that understates it, because the other two—C. William Verity and Dirk Kempthorne—weren't up against serious filibusters." They were, instead, largely symbolic, and both men were confirmed.

The Republicans are no longer a serious party interested in doing the serious business of running this nation. They're a bunch of self-interested dipshits who can't be relied upon for anything but pointless obstructionism.

Don't get me wrong: There are legitimate reasons to object to Hagel's nomination. It's just that the GOP isn't interested in any of them.

UPDATE: Care of Shaker NineOfCups, in comments—Hayes Brown at Think Progress: Senate Republicans Make History, First To Filibuster Defense Secretary Nominee. Welp.