WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Democrats would get their comeuppance for changing the filibuster rules curbing the power of the minority in the 2014 election.
“The solution to this problem is an election,” McConnell said at a Thursday press conference after the Senate voted to go nuclear, changing the rules of the filibuster.
“The solution to this problem’s at the ballot box,” McConnell said. “We look forward to having a great election in November 2014.”
The Minority Leader would not say whether or not he would change the rules back if Republicans won the majority in 2014.
Republicans blasted the long-threatened move by Democrats on Thursday morning.
“This is a power grab,” Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander said.
Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain described it as a move made to allow the majority to “ride roughshod over the wishes and views and input of the minority.”
Still, McConnell was noncommittal when asked whether those bad feelings might translate into Republicans using other procedural tactics to stall or otherwise hamstring certain nominees.
“I don’t think this is a time to be talking about a reprisal,” he said. “I think it’s at time to be sad about what’s been done to the United States Senate.”