The Filibuster rules change has passed

[ProSense]

7. The rules have changed: Reid pulls trigger on nuclear option

The rules have changed: Reid pulls trigger on nuclear option

by Joan McCarter

Kaboom! Republicans dared Harry Reid to do it, and he just did, finally. The Senate has voted to change the filibuster rules, 52-48. Democrats Carl Levin, Joe Manchin, Mark Pryor voted against changing the rule.

The new rule that will allow just a simple majority vote for all nominees expect for the Supreme Court. For the remainder of this Congress, President Obama's nominees will only need 51 votes to be appointed. What that means immediately is that, while the Republicans continue to play games to delay action on the Defense Authorization, the nominations of Patricia Millett, Nina Pillard, and Roberts Wilkins to the D.C. Circuit can move forward. So can the nomination of Rep. Mel Watt to the federal housing agency. In other words, the Senate can start functioning again. At least on nominations.

This will likely just further enrage Republicans, making them even more obnoxious and obstructionist. So next stop, ending the filibuster on legislation. That will probably happen at the beginning of the next Congress, January, 2015.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/21/1257318/-The-rules-have-changed

Almost Anticlimactic

David Kurtz

I don't know what I expected. Maybe the phrase "nuclear option" conjured some cataclysmic moment on the Senate floor when Harry Reid presses a cartoonish red button and Mitch McConnell, tie askew and hair mussed, shouts an anguished "Noooooo" while lunging to stop him.

But there's no such dramatics on the Senate floor. Not even anyone raising a cane.

Instead, through a series of votes the Senate rules are being changed, one aye (or nay) at a time. Real anger among Republicans, don't get me wrong. Real historic changes to be sure.

But the threat of the filibuster changes, made endlessly for years, carried such implications of high drama and momentousness, that the rather mundane way it actually happens seems almost anticlimactic.

It makes you wonder why it didn't happen sooner.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/filibuster-senate-rules-nuclear-option