Nuclear Option

Washington Dispatch:

For weeks, [Senate Minority Leader Harry] Reid has threatened to bring the senate chamber to a halt if Republicans proceed to enact a rules change that would allow a simple majority to vote up or down on 10 federal appeals court nominations who to this point have been filibustered by Senate Democrats. ...

It seems that nearly the entire Democratic Party has learned nothing from successive defeats at the ballot box starting in 2000. By repeating these same obstructionist tactics that lost them the then-majority leader, Tom Daschle, in the previous election cycle, the Democratic Party leadership is once again capitulating to its radical base, and opting for a self-imposed “nuclear option” on itself. ...

It is time for Republicans to start acting like the majority party, and time for Democrats to accept that they are now the minority party. For Republicans to do any less invites a “nuclear option” of a different sort, namely at the ballot box in next year’s midterm elections.