perception, you may be right or you may be wrong. I don't know.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the "nuclear option" has never been used in the Senate before. For better or worse, the US Senate operates under gentlemans' rules that date back to the days of our Founders.
If Frist employs it, then Schumer (God forbid) will when the Dem's take the majority.
And then we will be in a world of hurt.
You and I and every other "regular folk" think that our elected officials fight for our sides, and despise their opponents.
It doesn't work that way.
After the "Chuck Chvala midnight massacre" in 2002, in which the then-majority leader bent and broke every rule to keep our concealed carry bill from coming to a vote, the supporters who had sat in the gallery all day and night were ready for lynchings.
While we stood there and steamed about how we had been robbed of our vote, the senators from both parties went to the bars across the street. Democrat or Republican, they all get along (for the most part). They're friends.
And it's no different in Washington, except for those who stand on principle and refuse to bargain.
Hey, why not? Members of the club get free haircuts, the best medical care that taxpayers can buy, lifetime pensions that the rest of us would give our right testicles for, free trips to exotic locales to examine this-or-that supposed problem, and attention from a fawning media.
It's like being a rock superstar, but without the requisite talent. Just that John Edwards look. You know, the hair parted on the side.
And, oh, yeah, they all have to be able to say, "at the end of the day..." no matter what the issue at hand.
We don't have a dysfunctional goverment. I wish we did. I love it when the congress is in "gridlock." That means that no more laws can be passed.
Kennedy, Reid, Schumer and other ultra-left senators gave the go-ahead to the rest of their cohorts to confirm Roberts.
They're saving their powder for the next nominee.