The Nuclear Option

 

Okay, the trigger has been pulled on the Nuclear Option. While I an glad to see that President Obama will now have the opportunity to fill the vacancies on the DC Court, I have to wonder if this is a move that someday may come back and bite Democrats on the rear-end.

There was a time, 2005, sorry I can’t recall the exact date, that the Republicans were threatening the same move and the Democrats fought hard against it. The nuclear option is something that is now available to all and no one, regardless of party, can honestly complain.

While this helps any President have his judicial appointment receive an up or down vote, this is not the only filibuster reform that needs to be accomplished. What the Senate needs to do is go back to the "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" filibusters.

If I understand it correctly, and by no means am I certain this is correct, a Senator can promise a filibuster if a certain bill is brought to the floor and opened for debate.  Should this occur the Leader then has to have a cloture vote before that bill is brought up. This means that any bill before the Senate would have to have super-majority support, sixty votes, before it could be debated.

This is not what democracy - majority rules - is about. This allows the minority to control the agenda. No bill should be able to be filibustered until it is brought to the floor and opened for debate. This way a Senator wishing to filibuster would be required to hold the floor until they chose to relinquish it thus ending the filibuster. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington