Josh Marshall reports:
Third try's the charm? With 'nuclear option' up in a mushroom cloud, and 'constitutional option' down the memory hole, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky this morning introduced "Byrd Option" as the new GOP-approved word for abolishing the filibuster.
Reporters should be getting their notices shortly.
Well, dailykos was on the case YESTERDAY:
There's a persistent misunderstanding in certain circles about the nuclear option, that is, the schoolyard taunt that, "they started it."
Underlying the charge: Senator Byrd, in his capacity as Majority Leader, "has used parliamentary tactics and majority votes to accomplish procedural rule changes."
What such charges fail to note, in each of the examples cited, is that the changes were always executed by means well within the contemplation of Senate rules and not, as the execution of the nuclear option requires, in contravention of them.
We're always one step ahead of them. Heh.