Another momentous change made by Democrats with no bipartisan support

Today, Senate Democrats made another momentous change to American political life with no bipartisan support. By a 52-48 vote, with all Republicans voting nay, the Senate changed its filibuster rules to allow Senate confirmations to proceed with just 51 votes. Since 1975, 60 votes had been required to invoke cloture (end of debate), and before that 66. This rules change will, of course, make it easier for Democrats to ram through various nominations along party lines. As WSJ reports:

[Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell] said the drive to change Senate rules represented a raw use of power akin to the tactic used to pass the Affordable Care Act. "They muscled through Obamacare on a party-line vote and didn't care about the views of the minority, and that's just about what they are going to do here," said Mr. McConnell.

The change is a clear sign of the increasing panic and desperation of Democratic politicians as their poll numbers plummet due to the Obamacare disaster. It is quite clear now that the Democrats will not take back the House in 2014 and are very much in danger of losing their majority in the Senate. So, their plan in the meantime is to ram through as many confirmations as they possibly can. The immediate goal of Democrats is to pack the DC Circuit Court with three additional Democratic nominees.