Senate Democrats to force vote to end debate on Hagel nomination

[Hard Assets]

8. Okay. For your education purposes. Nuclear or constitutional option

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_option

In U.S. politics, the nuclear option, also called the constitutional option, is when the presiding officer of the United States Senate disregards a rule or precedent, for example by asking the Senate to end a filibuster by majority vote. The rules of the Senate specify that ending a filibuster requires the consent 60 senators (out of 100) for legislation, 67 for amending a Senate rule. An opinion written by Vice President Richard Nixon in 1957 concluded that the U.S. Constitution grants the presiding officer the authority to override Senate rules in this way.[1] (The U.S. vice president is also president of the Senate.) If a majority vote to uphold the presiding officer, his interpretation of the rules becomes a precedent. In practice, the issue rarely arises as presiding officers generally follow established precedent, as interpreted by the Senate's parliamentarian.

Republicans won't play nice, so Reid needs to stop playing nice with the Republicans and give them what they deserve - complete disregard for their policies or amendments, or their WHINES.