Reid Drops Nuclear Bomb and His Party Will Rue its Fallout

From Clarice Feldman at the American Thinker Blog:

Why, Besides Partisan Political Expedience, Did Reid Do This? 

 As I noted, behind the scenes the leftmost wing of the Democrat party is smarting and pressed Reid to do this. Ostensibly, however, the impetus was the refusal of the Republicans to go along with a court-packing scheme to add three judges to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. This court, because it hears appeals from federal administrative actions, is the most important federal court below the U.S. Supreme Court and it has been a hindrance to some of the administration's more lawless moves. The three nominees blocked before the institution of the new, less rigorous rule on cloture are Patricia A. Millett, Cornelia Pillard, and Robert L. Wilkins. Even with the new rule, Millett will not be confirmed before the Senate reconvenes on December 9. After that the other two are expected to be up for reconsideration. Behind them, as the Washington Post noted on Saturday, there are "189 Obama judicial nominations awaiting confirmation" and "53 Obama judicial nominations moving through the Senate." How many will make it through the Senate before the 2014 election results are in and a new (possibly Republican) Senate is sworn in is anyone's guess. Nor is it a sure thing that the House will increase the D.C. Circuit's budget to include what it considers the three new extraneous, political appointments.