The reason I haven’t written about Harry Reid going a bit nuclear last night is because I was having a lot of difficulty understanding what happened. David Waldman helped me understand a little better, and I thank him for taking the time to do it. Steve Benen put in the effort to write it all down, so I don’t feel the need to repeat it all here.
There are two important points you need to understand about what Harry Reid did. First, he did not do what the Republicans threatened to do in 2005. He did not get rid of the filibuster for judicial nominees or for any other purpose. The filibuster is as strong today as it was yesterday. Second, he did go nuclear. He went nuclear because he disregarded a ruling by the parliamentarian and the chair, and held a vote to change the rules, which ordinarily requires a two-thirds vote. The vote was 51-48.
This rule change will not come back (directly) to bite the Democrats when they are in the minority because they will still have the filibuster. The rule change only pertains to legislation that has already passed the filibuster hurdle. However, if the Republicans ever want to do away with the filibuster for judges or anything else, they can now point to what Harry Reid did as precedent. I suppose it lowers the bar and makes it slightly more likely that the filibuster will go away at an inopportune time for Democrats at some point in the future.
For now, all that’s changed is that Mitch McConnell lost one of his tools of obstruction. He has plenty left, so you won’t notice much of a change.
