Harry Reid Goes Nuclear

An historic Senate rule change means that jut 51 votes will be needed to approve many executive and judicial nominees. Fifty-two Senate democrats voted with Harry Reid to end the filibuster rule.

Three Democrats, Sens. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Carl Levin of Michigan, opposed the change.

The rules change does not apply to Supreme Court nominees, who are still subject to a 60-vote filibuster threshold, or to legislation.

“The American people believe Congress is broken. The American people believe the Senate is broken. And I believe they are right,” Reid said Thursday on the Senate floor. “The need for change is so very, very obvious.”

The turning point in this latest showdown was Republicans’ decision to block all three of Obama’s latest nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the nation’s second most powerful court with vast jurisdiction over federal agencies and regulations.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.