The System Works! The Senate Fixes Itself.

[Tev]

I still refuse to call it a "Nuclear Option" because that's a dumb way to describe doing your job.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled the trigger Thursday, deploying a parliamentary procedure dubbed the "nuclear option" to change Senate rules to pass most executive and judicial nominees by a simple majority vote.

The Senate voted 52 to 48 for the move, with just three Democrats declining to go along with the rarely used maneuver.

From now until the Senate passes a new rule, executive branch nominees and judges nominated for all courts except the Supreme Court will be able to pass off the floor and take their seats on the bench with the approval of a simple majority of senators. They will no longer have to jump the traditional hurdle of 60 votes, which has increasingly proven a barrier to confirmation during the Obama administration.

....
McConnell compared the alleged duplicity to another Democratic piece of rhetoric. "If you like the rules of the Senate, you can keep them," he quipped, as the GOP side laughed heartily, which encouraged a pleased McConnell to turn directly to his colleagues and repeat the joke.

He then turned to the Democratic side and said he understood why inexperienced young members who'd never been in the minority might want to change the rules. "The rest of you guys in the conference should know better," he said.
...
"Stop trying to jam us," McConnell said, warning that it would come back to haunt them. "You may regret it a lot sooner than you think."
...
"It's raw power that they're exercising, that, like I say, is a very dangerous thing for them to do," Hatch said. "They're going to rue the day they do it."
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"I feel great," Merkley said. "Since I came here in 2009, I've been absolutely appalled by the dysfunction of this body.

It's about time.