At this writing, Senate Democrats are threatening to exercise the so-called “nuclear option” – a parliamentary maneuver that would end, once and for all, the minority’s ability to block presidential nominations with just forty-one votes. It is a safe bet that, if Majority Leader Harry Reid can get away with doing this for the president’s appointees to executive branch positions, he will soon apply the rule change to his nominations for judicial ones and then to all other Senate legislative business.