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As President Obama said, they got away with it. Harry Reid and the Democrat-controlled Senate got away with changing the Senate’s rules so that they can shove through anything they want without having to worry about Republicans filibustering against it. Just a few short years ago, then-Senator Obama spoke forcefully against doing what Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) just did. When Republicans talked about a similar rule change in 2005, Obama said (emphasis added): I urge my Republican colleagues not to go through with changing these rules. In the long run, it is not a good result for either party....

In the wake of Harry Reid using the nuclear option in the Senate, Republicans need to take the gloves off and go to war. Reid chose to upend over 200 years of precedent and rewrite the rules so that a simple majority can now approve judicial appointees. The way that the Democrats have been squawking, you would think that the Republicans had stifled every single one of the judicial appointments picked by Obama. The truth is that the vast majority of nominations are confirmed. The sticking point is that three appointments to the US Court of Appeals in the District...

Democrats and abortion activists are gleefully cheering a vote Senate Democrats took today to abolish the filibuster. The immediate effect of the vote is that Senate Democrats can quickly approve pro-abortion nominees President Barack Obama has sent forward for lower courts. But, are there unintended consequences? One unintended consequence is that future sessions of the Senate, controlled by Republicans, could eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees and a nominee who could be the deciding vote to overturn Roe v. Wade could be confirmed. The Supreme Court is generally thought to be divided 5-4 in favor of Roe at this...

Well. . . Harry Reid has gone nuclear. Yesterday the Senate, with cheerleading from Democrats in the House of Representatives and our honesty-deprived White House, passed a rule that would strip the minority party of its right to filibuster most Presidential nominees. The move itself (known as the “nuclear option”) usurps the Senate’s traditional eye toward minority rights, and dismantles the republican form of deliberation for which the Senate is known. The truly audacious part of the Senate Democrat’s power grab, however, was their blatant hypocrisy. After all, in 2005 they voted against this very rule change. Now don’t...

Matt Bevin condemned the unprecedented power play by Harry Reid in the U.S. Senate today. When the Administration’s D.C. Circuit Court packing was challenged, Harry Reid and liberals in the Senate didn’t just bypass the rules, they eliminated them. Further, Mitch McConnell failed as a leader in this fight to stop the blatant disregard for the rules. Perhaps it is because this DC insider has a long history of voting for the appointment of liberal judges, or because he’s been also had a history of “filibuster flip-floppery.” Whatever the excuse, he is in good company. Meanwhile, Democrat candidate Alison Lundergran...

Harry Reid just made President Obama a lame duck. With his triggering of the "nuclear option", he nuked any chances for any of Obama's legislative priorities through the 2014 elections. Immigration "reform" - Tax reform - Any other Democrat priority -

President Obama will get a short-term lift for his nominees, judicial and otherwise, but over the immediate horizon, the strong-arm move by Senate Democrats on Thursday to limit filibusters could usher in an era of rank partisan warfare beyond even what Americans have seen in the past five years. Ultimately, a small group of centrists — Republicans and Democrats — could find the muscle to hold the Senate at bay until bipartisan solutions can be found. But for the foreseeable future, Republicans, wounded and eager to show they have not been stripped of all power, are far more likely to...

President Obama delivered remarks today supporting Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid’s decision to deploy the “nuclear option” ending minority filibusters of some judicial nominees. The Democrats tried to limit the effect of their action, stating that it only applies to nominees below the Supreme Court level. But the damage done will go far beyond judicial nominees. Bipartisanship in the Senate is dead. Harry Reid and Barack Obama had already done grave damage to it by passing Obamacare. Today they finished it off. Democrats currently hold a 53 seat majority, plus 2 Independents who tend to side with the Democrats. A...

The rule of law has been replaced in Washington by "yes we can." The events we witnessed Thursday in the Senate, that is Majority Leader Harry Reid's success at invoking the so-called 'nuclear option,' stripping the minority party of its primary power to block nominations, have become a stunning capstone to what has been already a steady erosion of a government of laws down to a sort of semi-political banana republic. We are now living in a republic in which politicians do what they want without regard to tradition or the best interests of our country. The rule of more...

......Sen. Carl Levin (Mich.), one of just three Democrats who opposed his colleagues’ naked power grab, read those words on the Senate floor Thursday after Reid invoked the nuclear option. The rumpled Levin is not known for his oratory. But he is retiring next year and free to speak his mind — and his words were potent. “We need to change the rules, but to change it in the way we changed it today means there are no rules except as the majority wants them,” Levin said. “This precedent is going to be used, I fear, to change the rules...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/11/21/senate-filibuster-nuclear-option-republicans-editorials-debates/3670451/

Senate Democrats triggered the “nuclear option” Thursday, using a shortcut to undercut the chamber’s filibuster rules and giving President Obama a clear path to stack the federal judiciary with ideological allies. In a tense 52-48 vote, Democrats overturned decades of precedent and reduced the number of votes needed to cut off the filibuster of a nominee from 60 to a simple majority — and in the process tinkering with a tool that has made the Senate unique. Republicans were hinting at retaliation and said the move further poisoned the atmosphere on Capitol Hill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat,...

....Reid clinched support for changing the rules at the weekly Tuesday Senate Democratic caucus lunch. .....Reid, without mentioning the colleague’s name, told his caucus that one of its senior members who had long opposed filibuster reform, recently had a change of mind and privately urged him to trigger the controversial tactic. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) then rose before the room full of Democrats and identified herself as the recent convert. “She got up right afterward and said, ‘He was talking about me,’” said a Democratic senator..... Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) did not know if he had the votes...

"...As Majority Leader Harry Reid orchestrated the change in the rules governing executive nominations and lower-court appointments, his opponents cried tyranny, though they also promised that when they took power they would go further, applying the new standard to Supreme Court nominations. In other words, tyranny—but we promise we'll give you more of it. The new rules fit with that kind of Senate. ...Whoever is ultimately at fault for the rule change—the Democrats who forced it or the Republicans who blocked the nominations requiring the new rules—the result is that the minority will have less power. That means elections will...

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition… it’s America’s Clean-Up Hitter! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

Ok, I did it. I flipped over to PMSNBC during a commerical. I caught Al Sharpton showing a clip of Rush talking about how Obama can be a dictator due to the Senate rule changes. Sharpton has no problems with the rule changes and yelled (he always yells on his program), "No, Obama is just doing what was elected to do, and elected again to do."

November 21, 2013 Nuclear Fallout The Editors What is the filibuster? It is “a time-honored Senate procedure that prevents a bare majority of senators from running roughshod,” according to our friends on the New York Times editorial page. But that was in 2005, when Republicans frustrated over Democratic filibusters of President George W. Bush’s judicial nominations were (with National Review’s support) considering the so-called nuclear option, the overblown name of which suggests that it is rather more than a change in the Senate’s procedural rules. The Times denounced the Republicans’ “rank hypocrisy” in 2005, as did any number of Democrats....

<p>We should have known this was coming. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has warned he would do something along these lines. He has proven, in this instance, at least, that he can be trusted to do what he said he would do.</p>

US President Barack Obama has supported a motion passed by Senate Democrats which weakens Republicans' ability to block White House nominations. The measure, known as the "nuclear option", curbs the power of the upper chamber's minority party to use a blocking tactic known as a filibuster. Mr Obama said the practice had gone too far, and was "not normal". Republicans vowed they would use the new rule against Democrats if they won back the Senate in the next election. Correspondents said Thursday's motion, which passed 52-48, will make American politics even more acrimonious. 'Power grab' At the White House on...

Mitch McConnell offered a one-liner after Harry Reid’s decision to launch the nuclear option that jabbed at both Reid’s reversal on the issue as well as the controversy surrounding Obamacare. “He may just as well have said if you like the rules of the Senate, you can keep them!” he gibed, to laughter from the audience. He pointed to Reid’s comments from just a few months ago, in which he stated that he would not bring forward the nuclear option in regard to President Obama’s nominees for the D.C. Circuit, saying the reversal reflects the Democrats’ recent reputation for making...