Bob Franken

Let’s face it — too much of the coverage we provide from Washington is “inside baseball,” easily ignored by those who live in the real world. Sometimes, though, this stuff matters. A case in point is the decision by Harry Reid and his Democratic gaggle to invoke the “nuclear option.” It’s called that because Reid and his partisan majority blew up the traditional filibuster. Utilizing a parliamentary maneuver, they were able to circumvent the usual two-thirds vote necessary to change the rules and used a simple majority to do away with the biggest delaying tactic that has helped define the “del...