Terry McMahon's Awesome Blog

You may be able to guess what I think about Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, since it's the same opinion as a lot of Democratic activists: he's great. He's aggressive in standing up for Democratic values, and he's had a Theo Epstein-level boldness with some of his strategic moves. Here's one story from earlier this year: after the Republicans beat Tom Daschle in South Dakota, in no small part by calling him an obstructionist with no vision of his own, they released a 200-page document on how Reid himself was just as bad an obstructionist as Daschle. So did Reid retreat to the bunker, to try to plan an appropriate response? No way - he immediately said that kind of attack had no place in politics, and at his meeting the next day with Bush, he made the president disavow his own party's tactics. Not bad. So Harry Reid is a real man.

He showed off his cajones again today by calling Frist out on the nuclear option to abandon judicial filibusters in the Senate. Via Kos, I found out Reid has just put out a statement, with a message for Frist: put up or shut up.

I still consider this confrontation entirely unnecessary and irresponsible. The White House manufactured this crisis. Since Bush took office, the Senate confirmed 208 of his judicial nominations and turned back only 10, a 95% confirmation rate. Instead of accepting that success and avoiding further divisiveness and partisanship in Washington, the President chose to pick fights instead of judges by resubmitting the names of the rejected nominees.

This fight is not about seven radical nominees; it's about clearing the way for a Supreme Court nominee who only needs 51 votes, instead of 60 votes. They want a Clarence Thomas, not a Sandra Day O'Connor or Anthony Kennedy or David Souter. George Bush wants to turn the Senate into a second House of Representatives, a rubberstamp for his right wing agenda and radical judges. That's not how America works.

I believe there are two options for avoiding the nuclear showdown, which so many of us believe is bad for the Senate, and bad for America.

But I want to be clear: we are prepared for a vote on the nuclear option. Democrats will join responsible Republicans in a vote to uphold the constitutional principle of checks and balances.

...

Either of these options offers a path away from the precipice of the nuclear option. But if neither of these options is acceptable to you, let's vote.

As Kos mentions, the two alternatives Reid proposes are a previously issued proposal that the Democrats will let most of these judges slide in exchange for keeping the filibuster, or a regular vote on changing Senate rules. (The latter requires a two-thirds vote, the GOP is skirting the rules to do it with a simple majority.)

But you gotta love a guy who's not afraid to call a bluff. Time for Bill Frist to show his hand.

(And as an addendum, former Senate Democratic Leader George Mitchell lays out a history of the judicial filibuster in today's New York Times. Yes, the Republicans used it, and apparently quite a lot.)