As someone who in my youth demonstrated against nuclear power (remember Seabrook, anyone?) I have always been against nuclear power. Now, I find to my surprise that my thinking has changed. There are good nukes and there are bad nukes. For example:
Nuclear power in the sun - good.
Nuclear power as a solution to the climate crisis - bad. (Sorry, President Obama, but we forgive you.)
Nuclear cold fusion - good, but imaginary.
Nuclear weapons - bad. (Thanks, President Obama for trying to reduce them.)
As I said, some kinds of nuclear power are good and some not so much. But there is one kind of nuclear power that is indisputably terrific. That is the power of the NUCLEAR OPTION!
Yes, remember the nuclear option? That was the term used by then Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in 2005 when Democrats were (gasp!) threatening to block some of George Bush's judicial appointments. The Republicans insisted - INSISTED, mind you - that judicial appointments deserved an up or down vote. (They neglected to mention that this only applied to judicial appointments by Republican presidents, but who wants to quibble over details?)
So in response to the Democrat threat of filibuster, the Republicans threatened to end the filibuster with a parliamentary procedure thye nicknamed the "nuclear option."
Now, I'm not a parliamentarian or a student of the Senate. I did look it up this wikipedia article I thought the Senate could only change its rules when a new Congress convened (in other words next January). But this article seems to says that with a simple point of order and a majority vote, Dems could end the filibuster forever - and then deliver the kind of progrssive program the country needs. (And coincidentally a program that would rally voters to Democratic candidates next November.)
Just think about it - a health reform bill (maybe with a public option) a climate change bill, a strong banking reform bill a new jobs bill, new student loan bill all of them just one lousy majority vote away.
I know that it's not a given that there are 50 Democratic senators who would vote for such a resolution. (And maybe wikipedia is wrong - it happens occasionally.) Perhaps there are some Kossacks who can weigh in on this. But as for me, all I have to say is
Go Nuclear!