I hope you're wearing radiation suits

Kevin Drum on the nuclear option:

...[R]egardless of what you think of blue slips, Republicans were delighted to use them when Bill Clinton was the one nominating judges but then suddenly reversed course and ended the blue slip tradition as soon as their own guy was in office. Ditto for "Rule IV," another way that the minority had long been allowed to influence judicial nominations until the Republican party decided to do away with it last year. And ditto again for "up or down votes on all judges," a decidedly newfound rallying cry among Republicans. You can find more details on this tawdry and cynical manipulation of the rules here and here.

The judicial filibuster is indeed an obstruction of last resort. But I'll repeat a deal I've suggested several times over the past couple of years, most recently in January: return all the other rules to the state they were in when Bill Clinton was president and Democrats would probably be willing to forego use of the filibuster. Republicans have no one but themselves to blame for the current game of nuclear chicken they find themselves in.

It's interesting to see how fast the Republicans changed from the "Contract with America" party to the "completely drunk with power" party.