This is, in part, a public service announcement, but not entirely, as I had been planning on blogging on this point in any case. Recent posts on judicial confirmations and the filibuster touched on this, but I did not address it directly.

In case you haven’t been paying any attention to politics over the past few weeks, the Republicans are now gung-ho on what they themselves have termed as “the nuclear option,” which is to say, changing the rules (boy, they really love doing that whenever it suits them) so as to do away with the filibuster. Never mind that the filibuster is a vaunted, respected and much-loved element of Democracy; never mind that they used it themselves both as opposition and as the party in power; never mind that they used other processes almost identical in nature in even more abundance; never mind that they only want to do this because they are now in charge, and never mind that if they succeed, when the Democrats take power again the GOP will be screaming for the filibuster to come back in the name of “fairness.” Forget about all that.

Focus instead on exactly what this is all about, why the GOP wants the filibuster, at least for the time being, to be gone. They control the White House, both houses of Congress, and for the most part, the Supreme Court. They get 95% of the judicial appointments they want (as opposed to maybe 70% for Clinton), and probably a much higher percentage of legislation overall. Almost everything that happens in government is Republican, almost nothing of Democratic origin even reaches the floor.

You would think they would be happy with that. But of course, they are not. Not unless they can have it all, not unless they can completely silence and disempower the opposition, which only represents 45 to 49% of the populace.

They are like a child of such immaturity and selfishness that they have to have everything, every time, and in every way they want to have it. They are, in short, the definitive crybabies.

This take comes from a reader of Josh Marshall’s, and it should be used as it deserves to be used, which is as often as possible. “The nuclear option,” after all, is a GOP term, the one they prefer; but if a shoe fits, then one should be made to wear it. If they act like crybabies, then indeed we should call them on it.

It’s not “the nuclear option.” It is, far more accurately, “the Crybaby Option.” Use the term. Spread the word.