Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Lamar Alexander, Republican from Tennessee, declared the other day that Senate Democrats' exercise of "the nuclear option" to stop him and his fellow profligate filibusterers from forestalling up-or-down votes on Obama's judicial appointments was "another partisan political maneuver to permit the Democratic majority to do whatever it wants to do; in this case it's to advance the president's regulatory agenda and the only cure for it I know is an election."
Yes, it's shocking that Obama, having won an election, should occasionally exhibit a tendency toward pursuing his agenda. The cure for a Democratic president and Senate is a jillion fillibusters and then another election. Only elections won by Republicans, it seems, confer the right to pursue an agenda.
Hendrik Hertzberg points out the obvious: the real "nuclear option" is the routine application of a nonconstitutional rule to keep the president from exercising his prerogative to appoint qualified jurists who share his general outlook. Saying no to the filibuster is arms control.
