The whole argument about who created the term "nuclear option" is a distraction from the real issue at hand, which is the Republican's attempt to ram through these miserable, right-wing extremist judges. I suspect this is a deliberate distraction: and should the Republicans dig up an earlier Democratic reference, than they're going to portray the issue as if they've won the underlying argument, which they haven't. We on kos are helping them along by swallowing this bit of red herring, with attached tackle, hook, line and sinker.
I know there's going to be a lot of people saying that this issue is important because it's about the Republicans controlling the language of political discourse. This is true, but the correct response IN THIS INSTANCE is not to get in a stupid shouting match about who used the term first. This is pretty much suits the R's purposes -- they shout louder and have more stupid hollerers who go on TV to do nothing by yell.
Instead, we'd be better of changing the issue by saying the matter's pretty much irrelevant. Whoever invented the term, it's pretty much in common usage now, and not just by Democrats. The "constitution option" is pretty clearly propaganda, that no one is using. The best bet in dealing with it is frankly to make fun of it, and then to change the subject to the real matter at hand -- the judges who are out of step with a majority of Americans and who will be on the bench for life.