Can someone explain what kind of negotiations went on between...

[LAS14]

... Schumer and McConnell about the rules for the senate? What kind of leverage did each side have?????

tia
las

[turtleblossom]

1. Maybe Schumer discovered some naked pictures of him or something.

[getagrip_already]

2. schumer had 50 votes.....

mitch knew it. If mitch pushed iit, the dems would have voted in unison to get control. That is mitch's worst nightmare.

He caved.

just mho of course.

[servermsh]

3. I don't think we know. If there was any, it was private.

Assuming Schumer lined up all 50 Democratic Senators to use the nuclear option on the organizing resolution, then that is the leverage Schumer would have. Otherwise most of the leverage was on Mitch's side.

Perhaps Mitch was just pushing for a Democratic Senator or two to publicly say they wouldn't kill the filibuster. If that is all he wanted, he got it.

[marylandblue]

4. Here is my guess.

On Friday, Manchin said he supported the filibuster but also supported Schumer's stance not to put anything about filibusters in the agreement. Today Manchin reiterated his filibuster support in a public statement and that he would never change his mind. I suspect that he privately told McConnell that he would change his mind if McConnell continued to be a PITA.

[FBaggins]

5. Schumer has a tiebreaking vote in the VP

McConnell has the baseline agreement from the last time the Senate was evenly split... along with knowing that Schumer wants to be able to operate the Senate without the VP having to be in the building every day.

[Bev54]

6. There was no negotiations, Schumer refused to negotiate

other than to say they would use the same rules as last time. McConnell just thinks he has something to negotiate and he did not and had to cave.

[PoliticAverse]

7. Democrats had 50+1 votes. That's all you need to make the rules in the Senate. n/t

[LAS14]

8. Then why wait for McConnell to "cave?" Why not just vote new committee heads, etc. right away?

[PoliticAverse]

9. Because McConnell caving is better than seeming to run him over from Schumer's perspective.

McConnell caved because Schumer and the Democrats could have imposed any rules they wanted and McConnell thinks he can get a better deal if he doesn't fight to the end when he can't ultimately win. Sometimes you get a better deal when you surrender.