I don’t see how this helps except with judicial nominees (which are very important of course, but far from the only key issue).
The GOP controls the House — and will control it in 2015-2016 as well, so it’s not to get legislation rammed through. It’s already been made clear that anything passed under these rules will not be taken up in the House.
And here’s what is really stupid on Reid’s part — if the GOP takes the Senate in 2014 or 2016, they now have carte blanche to do the same thing — at the same time that they control the House, so they WOULD be able to ram things through. The Dems doing this won’t enable them to pass any legislation on to the President because they don’t control the House. It’s a really foolhardy move on Reid’s part.
The only way this will help the Dems is to ram-through judicial and cabinet appointments. Obama is determined to pack SCOTUS with insane Leftists. That will hurt for 35 years.