In the best news I’ve heard in weeks, Harry Reid invoked the “nuclear option” in the Senate today, and secured 52 Democratic votes to require only a majority to confirm executive and lower-court judicial nominees.

The only Democrats who didn’t go along were long-time “nuclear” opponent Carl Levin and two red-state senators of wandering loyalty, Joe Manchin and Mark Pryor. It took a lot of GOP obstruction to create this level of Democratic loyalty.

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.