Dick Durbin (D-IL) puts what the Czar hopes is his career on the line. Durbin announced today that if Brown wins the Massachusetts special election, the Democrats are prepared to use the nuclear option.

We trust this is not a literal statement. One never knows with the Democrats.

Either way, the story above blatantly confuses nuclear option with reconciliation. The two are very different.

A nuclear option is designed to kill a filibuster by effectively using precedent to defeat precedent. In any conflict between two otherwise perfect requirements, you go with the one that is more stringent. Since a filibuster is a precedent—and not an established procedure—the side enduring the filibuster simply calls for an immediate vote. As this precedent is supported by Constitution (which defines the purpose of a Senator to vote), you use this second precedent to stall the stalling filibuster.

Reconciliation is a good idea, designed to prevent bills with financing back by the present or immediate fiscal year from sliding past the budget deadline. In essence, it requires a financial bill to be voted on before its funding is delayed and thereby screws up the budget. Equally fortunate is the requirement that only bills with specific funding requirements are eligible; omnibus bills, like the healthcare bill, that cover every thing imaginable are ineligible—unless, of course, you throw out everything not related to money.

The Czar assumes that Senator Durbin is discussing the nuclear option. As reported a few times here, and elsewhere, reconciliation would be a disastrous move for the Democrats; it would strip away 90% of the bill, leaving only specific and immediate budget elements. Most of what they worked on will be vaporized for future voting—which would completely destroy the bill by allowing future GOP victories to eliminate any chance of that.

The nuclear option specifically addresses filibusters—if Brown wins, that’s really all the GOP has to stymie the Democrats’s plans. In turn, the nuclear option is all the Democrats really have to thwart the GOP.

The Czar has studied Senator Durbin well. The man is truly brilliant at sizing up a person’s acumen in under a second and speaking directly to that. In other words, if the Czar bumped into Senator Durbin, the Senator would immediately shake our royal hand and complain about the under-educated news media, their ridiculous bias, and how he, personally, was introducing legislation to prevent bias in the media. And we would walk away thinking, “Damn! He did it again!”

Then he would turn to ‘Puter, shake his hand, and say that he was personally voting against taxes for brown liquor and decriminalizing the more sensational forms of pornography. ‘Puter would think, cool! And as the Senator walked toward a liberal, he would then promise that guy something delightful regarding unionization and free lunches.

It is not that Durbin is a weasel or a chameleon, but a chimaera. He becomes what you want to see, and says wonderful things tailored to each and every hand he shakes. This is exactly how he gets re-elected. Even conservatives vote for the guy, thinking that Durbin is different based on one conversation or interview that sounded great.

With any luck, this will be the wildly unpopular move that destablizes his base.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.