Gene Healy Warns: Nobody Wins When You Go Nuclear on Filibusters
Serious political movements shouldn't try to knock down all the barriers to power whenever they temporarily enjoy it.
With only three Democrats defecting, on Thursday, the Senate, led by Harry Reid, changed the rules to prevent filibusters of virtually all presidential nominees except Supreme Court justices. By a simple majority vote—rather than the two-thirds that Senate rules require—Reid changed the rules mid-game, to prevent minority-party "obstruction" of the president's nominees. Gene Healy warns that serious political movements shouldn't try to knock down all the barriers to power whenever they temporarily enjoy it, because nothing is permanent in politics save the drive for more federal power, and the weapons you forge may someday be detonated by the other side.
