July 10, 2013
Politico has the story that Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid is thinking of "going nuclear" in order to limit filibusters of executive branch confirmations.
I sympathize with Reid. The Senate GOP has completely abused the filibuster, and have done so at exponentially higher rates than the Democrats abused it previously. In fact, I am not much of a fan of the filibuster to begin with. That said, if anything is going to further poison the partisan wells, perhaps irretrievably, this could be it. So, my advice to Sen. Reid is this. Wait until immigration reform and a budget deal are on the president's desk. Then do what you think you must on the filibuster. But not now.
