The Senate debated the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act all day yesterday and well into the night. This is the latest effort by Democrats on Capitol Hill to take over election regulation, ensure Washington bureaucrats control election rules, violate donor privacy, infringe on First Amendment rights, fund campaigns with federal dollars, and entrench Democrat power for decades to come.

On Tuesday, the Senate officially began consideration of the Democrats' latest partisan power grab, the "Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act."

12 noon, Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Senate begins consideration of the House Message to accompany #HR5746, Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act https://t.co/7iScGvjuI5

— U.S. Senate Floor (@SenateFloor) January 18, 2022

On Thursday morning, the House passed Democrats' most radical piece of elections legislation yet, the "Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act,” along party lines. This legislation combines the "Freedom to Cheat Act" and H.R. 4 into one bill.

Since becoming Senate Majority Leader, Senator Chuck Schumer has became an extremist and has seemingly lost touch with other Senators, including himself.  Then just Senator Schumer said in 2003:

"The bottom line is this. We are defending the Constitution, we are saying there should be some balance," Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a 2003 floor speech. "President Bush didn’t win by a landslide. This Senate is not 62 to 38, or 70 to 30. This country is narrowly divided, and that means when laws are made they move to the middle."

On Wednesday, Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer continued his campaign against the filibuster in the name of passing a federal takeover of elections. But Democrat Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are not buying Chuck Schumer's filibuster hysterics. Manchin expressed his continued hesitancy with making changes to the filibuster to a pool of reporters on Tuesday: "To being open to a rules change that would create a nuclear option, that's very, very difficult. That's a heavy lift… Anytime there's a carveout, you eat the whole turkey."

In a follow up to his "dear colleague" letter released yesterday, Senator Chuck Schumer took to the Senate floor on Tuesday to further discuss his plans to use changes in Senate filibuster rules to pass Democrat-backed elections legislation. In his remarks, Senator Schumer centered on the contention that the Left's radical elections proposals should be passed in response to the events of January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol.

.@SenSchumer (D-NY): "Jan. 6, 2021, will be forever remembered as a day of enduring infamy, a permanent blemish in the story of American democracy, and the final bitter act of the worst president in modern times."

Watch: https://t.co/VzzzKGNJFK pic.twitter.com/9MLmBdxO2y

— CSPAN (@cspan) January 4, 2022

On Monday, Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer indicated that he would hold a vote in the next few weeks to change Senate filibuster rules. He is threatening these changes in the event that the chamber inevitably is unable to pass one of the radical pieces of election legislation proposed by Democrats in 2021. In his letter, Senator Schumer wrote:

We must adapt. The Senate must evolve, like it has many times before. The Senate was designed to evolve and has evolved many times in our history. As former Senator Robert Byrd famously said, Senate Rules “must be changed to reflect changed circumstances.” Put more plainly by Senator Byrd, “Congress is not obliged to be bound by the dead hand of the past.”

Today former Senate Leader Harry Reid passed away.  Our condolences to his family, and we recognize his lasting impact on the Senate.

Harry Reid's legacy lives on. The most long-lasting part of his legacy may be the changing of the Senate filibuster in a fit of pique over DC Circuit judicial nominees.  Ironically, part of the reason for the Republican effort to block DC Circuit nominees was a nonpartisan belief that the DC Circuit does not need as many judges.  Republican Judiciary Committee leader Senator Charles Grassley was advocating reducing the number of judges on the DC Circuit, as the caseload did not justify it size.  He did this under Republican and Democrat Presidents. Senate Leader Harry Reid changed the rules on a partisan vote to nuke the filibuster in a fit of partisan rage.  Republican Leader Mitch McConnell stated at the time:

McConnell was quick to criticize Reid’s plan, accusing Democrats of trying to divert attention from the embattled health care law that has been a drag on the party. McConnell said Democrats were cooking up a “fake fight over judges that aren’t even needed.”

“You’ll regret this and you might regret it even sooner than you might think,” McConnell warned.

That regret came back to haunt the Democrats in 2016, when Justice Scalia died, and in 2017 when Senator Schumer, on a purely partisan filibuster, attempted to block Justice Gorsuch.  Following Reid's precedent on judges, Republicans changed the rules, and because of Senator Reid we have Justice Gorsuch today.  If Reid had never nuked the filibuster on judges, Justice Gorsuch could have been filibustered, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh certainly would have been. 

Last week, Senate Democrats took advantage of the absence of some Republican members to vote on a discharge petition for President Joe Biden's nominee to be the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, Rachael Rollins. Rollins' nomination would not have moved forward without trickery from the Democrats:

Rollins's nomination has been shelved in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee since that panel deadlocked in September on whether to report it to the Senate floor, breaking with what Democrats have described as a longstanding tradition of respecting the will of presidents and home-state senators.

The Senate Democrats are at it again. After a marathon session of voting on amendments to the infrastructure package, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer attempted to force a vote on a series of bills that would facilitate a federal takeover of elections including the Corrupt Politicians Act. But as The Houston Chronicle reported, Senator Ted Cruz repeatedly objected to the motions:

In a back-and-forth with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor around 3:30 a.m., the Texas Republican objected repeatedly as the New York Democrat sought consent for the Senate to consider a series of voting bills. Cruz denounced the legislation as “a federal government takeover of elections” and a “massive power grab by Democrats.”