Leader Thune Announces 'Relief Is on the Way,' Clarifies That Judges Are Not

WASHINGTON — Thune, returning to the majority leader's office after two years away, told reporters that "Americans voted for change" and offered what he called five words for the American people: "Relief is on the way." He did not specify the route, and noted separately that every bill will still need the signature of the president his party just spent a cycle campaigning against.

Relief will, however, be stopping short of the judiciary. Before the election Thune told reporters that "one of the reasons we want to do everything we can to take back the Senate is not let" the president "put such horrible justices" on the Supreme Court and the lower courts. Several of his colleagues cast doubt on whether they would confirm any nominee to a high-court vacancy during the president's final two years, and pointed, approvingly, to 2016, when a majority leader of the other party held a seat open for nearly a year.

The new majority will also control the president's cabinet nominations, which Thune described as "a check" and the White House described, through an official, as something to "buckle up" for.

Thune called the result "a generational remake of the Senate map," a phrase The Press notes was used by the other party in 2014 and is not, to date, copyrighted.

The Press's Senate desk applies the standard test. When a majority leader of the other party announced in advance that he would not seat the president's judges, it was "stealing a seat" and "the death of norms," and a senator of this party described it as a reason to abolish the filibuster. Under Thune it is "advice and consent." The seat is identical, as is the temperature at which it is being kept.

At press time relief had not arrived, though a spokesman said it was "on the way," which is the same thing.