The Fix: “Thursday was a landmark day in political Washington. The Senate changed its rules on filibusters for the first time in its history — opening a potential Pandora’s Box that may very well lead to a future of majority-only votes in the world’s greatest deliberative body. The implications for the Senate’s traditions as well as how it functions day-to-day are hard to overstate.”

“And yet, for the world outside of Washington, invoking the nuclear option and the changing of filibuster rules are non-happenings — moments that barely register and almost certainly will have zero impact on who they vote for in the coming midterm elections.”

Congressional scholar Norm Ornstein told First Read the blame for invoking the “nuclear option” in the Senate was squarely on Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Said Ornstein: “This was an in-your-face, go-ahead-I-dare-you equivalent of a bully saying, ‘Go ahead and hit me,’ When the other kid says, ‘No,’ you spit in his face, kick him in the groin and force him to go ahead and do it.”

After Democrats invoked the “nuclear option” today, GOP senators pledged to push conservative judges through the Senate as soon as they get the chance.

But as First Read notes, “they will need to do two things come 2016: 1) win the White House and 2) control the U.S. Senate.”

“As it turns out, Republicans are poised to make Senate gains in the 2014 midterms — and maybe even win control of the chamber — due to the favorable battleground… But 2016 is a different story. In that ’16 cycle — a presidential year — Republicans will have to defend more Senate seats (24) than Democrats will (10).”

New York Times: “Inside the Senate, furious Republicans who portrayed the Democratic action as a blatant power grab will no doubt try to exact revenge by further slowing the chamber’s activities and making life as complicated as possible for Democrats. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader and an expert student of Senate rules, made it clear that Democrats would rue this day.”

Said McConnell: “But if they want to play games and set yet another precedent that they will no doubt come to regret, well that’s a choice only they can make.”

“Democrats say Republicans have been so successful in slowing the Senate that there is little more they can do to paralyze the institution, part of the reason that Democrats were finally willing to make the change.”

“I think what we really need is an anti-bullying ordinance in the Senate. I mean, now we’ve got a big bully, Harry Reid says he’s just going to break the rules and make new rules. Never been done this way before.”

— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by Politico.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pushed forward a vote to allow presidential nominations to go forward with a simple majority vote.

The vote was 52 to 48, mainly along party lines. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Carl Levin (D-MI) voted against changing the rules.

Roll Call says the “new precedent represents what’s likely to prove the most
significant change in Senate rules since 1975, when the cloture
threshold was reduced to 60 votes in most cases (from two-thirds of
senators present and voting).”

First Read: “It’s true in physics and in politics: For every action, there’s an opposite and equal reaction. And so after Senate Republican filibustered President Obama’s nominees to sit on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals — not on concerns about ideology or qualifications, but over the president’s ability to appoint ANYONE to these vacancies — Senate Democrats are poised to change the rules via the so-called ‘nuclear option.'”

“And while this may seem like a threat you’ve heard before, this time it seems as if there isn’t any deal that will derail this likely action. Senate Democratic aides confirm to First Read that they’re expected to vote today to change the rules to eliminate the 60-vote threshold for all executive appointments, except to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Wonk Wire: Filibuster reform now? Why not?