Crooks & Liars put out an audacious plan, based on twitter posts from Daily Kos’ David Waldman.
Send Biden to the Senate on Jan. 3 w Garland’s renomination & instructions to recognize Durbin before swearing in. https://t.co/KUNbf8qF8a
— David Waldman (@KagroX) November 25, 2016
The foundation of Waldman’s idea is that newly elected senators are not sworn in yet so their positions are vacant. At noon on January 3, previous senatorial terms expire. At that time there are 66 senators whose terms are not expiring: 34 Democrat, 2 independent, and 30 Republican. Therefore, at noon on January 3, Democrats would be in the majority. Following Waldman’s line of thought, since there are only 66 senators at noon, it would only require 33 votes to confirm Judge Merrick Garland.