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Voice of Mordor
Much has been made about the threat by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's tampering with the filabuster rule with regards to judicial nominations. What has been termed going nuclear.
But to do so could result in a mutual assured destruction (MAD for all of you too young to remeber the Cold War). Could, that is if we had Dems with some balls.....
The way the Senate works, in fact the way it handles much of its legislative tasks is through what are termed Unanimous Consent Agreements (UCAs). The leaders of both parties get together and discuss a piece of legislation, trying to head off any potential Senator who might filabuster portions of the bill. The leaders of both parties go back to their caucuses and ask those Senators who are interested in the bill to become involved. If they can get agreement from all 100 Senators, they can limit debate on a bill nad fast track it through the Senate.
Why is this important? The US House can overwhelm the Senate with bills due to its much more efficient bill producing structure. If no UCAs happen, the Senate could be in serious trouble of not getting to major pieces of important legislation before the end of term.
So the nuclear option for the Dems here is not not allow a single UCA from this point forward. It would cause havock for the Repugs agenda....and you can imagine the Republicans trying to explain the ins and outs of UCAs to the American people. Most would not understand why the Republicans can't run the Seante when they just won more seats and would probably think they were just blaming the Dems for their own failings....
Another tactic the Dems could employ is the Amendment process. Dems should have several high profile bills that they would threaten to attach to every bill coming through the Senate. These bills would have to be popular and cause divisions in the Republican's caucus.
So you see, if Sen. Reid understands the fact that the Dems have a nuclear arsenal of their own, he could simply stroll down to Frist office and give him a big heads up about what the schedule of the senate will look like for the next two years should he choose to go nuclear.
Literally, we will have a nuclear winter in the US Senate!