The Nuclear Option in Historical Context: "Enabling Act."

Why are the wingnuts and theocrats so angry tonight?

Because this wasn't just about some judges.

No, the nuclear option was the first step in eliminating the filibuster altogether. And the compromise, while not a perfect victory, that preserves the filibuster (for now) is a GOOD Thing. It is not a perfect thing, but it is a good thing.

Keep this in mind: eliminating the judicial filibuster was NOT what Dobson was after. . .not the end-game. The next step was elimination of the filibuster entirely. Since the filibuster is the last remaining check on untrammelled GOP/Christofacist-theocrat power, eliminating it would have been a defacto "Enabling Act" which someone, Bush or a successor, could use to do all sorts of horrific things...Handmaid's Tale type things.

They stepped back from the brink tonight. The filibuster remains, and the Republic still stands.

But the foundation is still weak, and we still have a lot of work to do. Just wait until the Supreme Court opens up.

Just because you lose a battle, doesn't mean you've lost the war-yet. I suppose but this has ad hoc all over it.

As though emasculating the Dems was every bit as important, if not more so, than getting a vote on that handful of judges. The grasping of more power was the objective, not "getting up or down votes" on those judges. The theocrats want the judges, so the move be the repubs was a pandering to them, throwing them a bone of something they wanted, as well as getting rid of us as an opposing force.