The Senate invoked a constitutional option -- not a "nuclear" one -- to end the 60-vote threshold required to end confirmation filibusters. The Senate action is a return to the constitutional governance of the Framers' design -- there is nothing "nuclear" about simple-majority votes.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled the trigger Thursday, deploying a parliamentary procedure dubbed the "nuclear option" to change Senate rules to pass most executive and judicial nominees by a simple majority vote.