His effort is of course more sinister than simply changing a rule...while Obama seeks to remakes the courts, Reid follows through with remaking the Senate...
Rush quickly commented in his opening monologue:Heritage: This afternoon, the Senate approved a rules change that will effectively eliminate the filibuster for executive branch and judicial nominations. Under the old rules, Senators could debate whether to confirm a nomination until 60 members voted to invoke cloture and end the debate. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) succeeded today in lowering that threshold to a simple majority of 51 votes when the Senate voted 52-48 to make the change.
This new rule will enable Reid to force through three nominations to the D.C. Circuit Court that Republicans have opposed based on the fact that the D.C. Circuit is underworked and doesn’t need any more judges.
Though the rule purportedly applies only to executive branch and judicial nominations—excluding Supreme Court nominations (for now, anyway)—it would seem with 51 votes, Reid can do just about anything. This change will certainly have a negative effect on whatever comity is left in the Senate, which used to be referred to as “the world’s greatest deliberative body.”
With 55 Senators in the Democratic caucus, Reid will no longer need to work with Republicans in order to confirm judges or executive branch nominees.
"They just voted the nuclear option in the Senate. They just changed 250 years’ worth of rules on advise and consent, and now Obama’s gonna get every judge he wants. He’s gonna get them. If they want to add seats to a court — if they want to add five new liberal seats to the DC circuit, for example — they can do it. There’s no stopping ‘em because the Republicans don’t have the votes."
But besides another blatant power grab, the hypocrisy of Reid, Obama and Biden is beyond the pale...
FLASHBACK: Sen. Harry Reid
In 2008, Reid swore that as long as he was leader, he would never turn to the nuclear option, saying it would be a “black chapter in the history of the Senate.” It appears we hit that today. Further back in 2005, pre-Dear Leader, Reid also declared such a change would be "un-American" and even "illegal"...
FLASHBACK: Sen. Joe Biden
In 2005, then-Senator Joe Biden declared that the GOP’s talk of a nuclear option was "a fundamental power grab." Funny how things change when the shoe is on the other foot, huh Joe?
FLASHBACK: Sen. Barack Obama
Finally, according to then-Senator Obama, the Nuclear Option 'poisons Washington' and it "certainly isn't what the patriots who founded this democracy had in mind." Although, this guy has been known to fib a time or two or ten!
“The Founding Fathers established the filibuster as a means of protecting the minority from the tyranny of the majority -- and that protection, with some changes, has been in place for over 200 years.” ~ Sen. Obama, 2005Related link: Chuck Todd: Harry Reid Changed Filibuster Rules To Please Dems “Activist Base” Upset Over Obamacare Fiasco
"Over the past five years, we’ve seen an unprecedented pattern of obstruction in Congress... it just isn’t normal. It’s not what our founders envisioned. ... So I support the step a majority of senators today took to change the way that Washington is doing business, more specifically, the way the Senate does business." ~ Pres. Obama, 2013
ADDENDUM: Out of all the media outlets, MSLSD reviewed the hypocrisy of the three pendejos that I've chronicled in the above flashbacks, with Mika Brzezinski leading out with a Looney Tune-esque tag line, "Well, that's, uhh, that's one way to get the attention off Obamacare." Precisely, Mika.
