Stewart Skewers Hype Over 'Nuclear Option'

In the real world, it's a sensible fix; in DC, it's the 'Hiroshima of voting'
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 22, 2013 9:29 AM CST

Harry Reid's change of Senate filibuster rules for most presidential nominations has been breathlessly labeled the "nuclear option," but Jon Stewart has a different phrase in mind to describe Reid's figurative pushing of the big red button. "Deciding to allow 'majority rules' to incrementally increase government efficiency in presidential appointments is so unthinkably extreme, it's the 'nuclear option'?" Stewart said on the Daily Show last night. "It's just like the Hiroshima of voting."

As for Mitch McConnell's warning to Democrats that they'll regret the move, Stewart summed it up like this: "Mark my words! One day you Democrats will want to be obstructionist a--holes, making a mockery of our system of government! And who'll be laughing then?" But the worst part about the end of the filibuster? "Once judicial nominees could be approved by simple majority, Christmas was abruptly cancelled, and babies were born knowing all the curse words." (More Jon Stewart stories.)

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