Remember The Nuclear Option? How Bout Now?

Ah yes. Back in the days when Republicans dominated the Congress and White House, there was a little kerfuffle about how every judicial nominee from President Bush deserves an "up or down vote", and if the Democrats threatened to filibuster any of President Bush's judicial nominations, the Senate Republicans would unleash the "nuclear option" (using a majority vote to change Senate rules to eliminate the two-thirds filibuster once and for all).

Remember that? Republican Senators don't. All 41 of them signed a pledge to filibuster any and all Obama judicial nominees if President Obama doesn't give them the power to veto any judges he appoints to their states, something that President Bush and Senate Republicans expressly laughed about when Senate Democrats suggested it way back when. "Elections have consequences," the Republicans said then. Remember that?

"The Senate has an important role in the confirmation process, and in extreme cases when the President has refused to consult with the Senate, the minority has tools to obstruct nominees who are obviously unfit for the bench. Obama looks to be clearing that standard easily," said Kolbert. "But it was only a few years ago that the GOP was willing to blow up the Senate in order to eliminate the filibuster entirely. They told anyone who would listen that every judicial nominee deserved an up-or-down vote without exception. Apparently, the Senate Republicans have the collective memory of a goldfish."

I sincerely wish that Senate Democats would threaten to get rid of the filibuster once and for all... and make goddamned sure they call it "the nuclear option" when they do. (Here's what I said 3½ years ago.)