At last . . . at long last

They should have done it long ago, but Senate Democrats today had finally had enough of Republican obstructionism when it comes to filibustering President Obama's nominees.   The vote was 52 to 48 to change the senate rules to rule out using the filibuster to prevent floor debate and vote on the president's nominess for the Executive branch and for judicial nominess up to but not including the Supreme Court.

Majority Leader Harry Reid outlined some stark statistics (as reported on Huffington Post:

1.  Half the nominess filibustered in the history of the United States were blocked by Republicans during the Obama administration.

2.  Of 23 district court nominees filibustered in U.S. history, 20 were Obama's nominees.

3.  Even judges that have broad bipartisan support have had to wait nearly 100 days longer, on average, than President George W. Bush's nominees.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blustered, threatened 'you'll regret this,' and tried to change the subject to trashing Obamacare.    But he clearly had lost this battle.

I wish they had gone further and instituted the revised filibuster rules proposed last year.   Filibusters would still be possible, but each week the number of votes required to reach cloture is reduced until it comes down to a simple 51 vote majority.   It allows the opposition to slow the process but not permanently block it.    The seems to me a simple solution that both sides should endorse.

Ralph