nominations by the president that have been held up by republicans and two of the big ones, one is nina pillard nominated to the d.c. circuit court and another is jed johnson who would lead the department of homeland security. pillard was confirmed just after 1:00 this morning. the reason this is happening dates back to last month when democrats changed the rules when a simple majority was needed to end filibusters for the president's nominations. that weakened republicans so they're fighting pack and trying to use up all of the time they possibly can to consider each and every one of these nominees so reid is responding by saying if you're going to do that we'll keep working right on through until this gets done. live in washington, i'm danielle lee. mara back to you. >> we'll watch and wait to see how it unfolds. >>> also on capitol hill a vote on the bipartisan budget teal we heard so much about wednesday. the house is expected to take up the bill crafted by congressman paul ryan and senator patty murray. it funds the government through 2015 and includes some $85 billion in spending cuts. ou

tonight, they are scheduled to take a vote on this non-controversial judicial nominee, her name is nina pillard? never heard of her, no problem, and also not the world's most high profile appointment. and then there are these nine other nominees who are all stacked up and ready for a vote. jay johnson is actually the famous one out of all of them. but he and all the rest of them, none of them are controversial. all of them are likely to eventually be confirmed once they do come up for a vote. but republicans have decided that they're going to take a really long time to do that. and they have decided to mount this kind of amazing and exhausting spectacle for the end purpose of achieving nothing they wouldn't get without it. they're getting nothing in terms of a policy issue. they're getting nothing in terms of stopping or advancing a singularly popular issue. harry reid and the democrats in the senate changed the rules three weeks ago to stop republicans from being able to filibuster nominees. they said they were not opposed to the filibuster on principle, but they said republicans were abusing

so we could confirm nina pillard right now.no one is saying a single word contrary to her being the quality candidate that we have said she is. she has been district of columbia appeals court. i repeat, some say the most important court in america. most say second only to the supreme court. but instead republicans are insisting that we vote on a nomination many hours from now after they have frittered away 30 hours of the senate's time. there are no objections to her qualifications. the outcome of her vote is a foregone conclusion. so when people around here complain that they aren't home with their families at christmas time, here is the reason. republicans' obstruction. it's hard to imagine a more pointless exercise than spending hour after hour after hour waiting for a vote whose outcome we already know. republicans insist on wasting time simply for the sake of wasting time. is it any wonder, i repeat, that the rule was changed? here is why. it's no wonder americans overwhelmingly support the changes made to the rules last m

last night the most prominent example was nina pillard, law professor at georgetown, now a judge on what's called the second most important court in the land, the d.c. circuit court of appeals here. that couldn't have happened without this change. whether democrats will regret it in the end because that means they will have more conservative republican judges to deal with, if there's a republican president, that may also be. >> well, we shall see. it's going to be an interesting day today, an interesting couple of days toward the end of this term. manu, ruth, always great talking to both of you. thank you. >> thanks, chris. >> thanks, chris. >>> checking the news feed this morning, the sign language interpreter controversy from nelson mandela's memorial service just keeps getting more bizarre. he's blaming schizophrenia for his unintelligible gestures and says he saw angels coming down into the said yum that day. what was scary was his proximity to world leaders, standing right next to barack obama, for example. >> sometimes i will get violent in that place. sometimes i will see, like, thi

by invoking the nuclear option, leading up to tonight's vote on nina pillard to the d.c. circuit, they are attempting to quiet a disaster of their own making. please note that this is a court that will hear the a.c.a. disputes. it was easy enough for them to paint a rosy picture of life after obamacare and for three years, they did it and they did their best to do so. but words can only go so far and no speech will help the failed implementation of the monster they have created. health care premiums for the average american family have already gone up by $2,500 since obamacare has become law. let's say that one more time. the average premium that an american family will have to face and then pay is $2,500. as costs continue to rise for middle-class americans, the median household income has dropped by more than $3,600 under president obama. so if you take $2,500 and you add in the drop of income of $3,600, the difference for the average american household under president obama's watch is significant. that doesn't even take into consideration the skyrocketing costs and the

circuit, nina pillard, exemplary. were going to do that and they do something on taxes. robinson, you know, three quality judges that they just filibustered. that stuff has got to stop. it's got to stop some way. i hope it stops at the ballot box. i hope that the american people say, we've had enough of this. year and obstructionists. you care more about a political issue than you do about this country. we are going to vote against y you. and barring that, then they did a rules change on appointments. at this point, the president administration, he is five years in. he's got more vacancies than any other president before him. he can't even get normal people appointed to make the government run. now, that is part of the strategy. they want to make the government look bad. you don't want the people and that can make it run so it looks bad so they can say, see how bad it looks like don't put more people than. it's part of the strategy. we've got to just breakthrough that spend i would love to bring into the conversation. take questions, just signal. i want to ask you if you

mcconnell tweeted this -- democrats broke the senate rules to rubberstamp liberal ideologues like nina pillardher nomination was approved this morning around 1:30 in the morning. cnn put out this tweet -- the for her tos 51 to 33 serve in washington. a little color for you about the senate talkathon. cory booker, the senator from new jersey send this tweet out, , late-nighte floor voting for those who can't sleep, fine your antidote to insomnia on c-span. for those of you that know and are watching. they have taken up the of rachel feld bloom who was renominated by the president to be the commissioner of the eeoc. they proved to and that the debate. they got the majority they needed to end the debate. they will vote on her around 9:00 a.m. eastern time for her second term as commissioner. this is her twitter page. lesbian, eeoc commissioner, and with a disability. tweets on civil rights, discrimination buster. deal talking about budget is expected to come to the house floor for a vote. what he think about senator boehner invoicing -- endorsing the deal and those that disagree ? boehner is lyin