Salon.com | Dump the filibuster!: "Let's start by acknowledging the obvious: The nuclear option is unprincipled. There's nothing commendable about the Republicans' attempt to steamroll the slightest opposition to their authority, and you can't have much respect for a team that wants to illegally change the rules in the middle of the game.

Now that we have that out of the way, here's an idea to consider: Republicans may not be wrong to want to eliminate the filibuster, and Democrats have nothing to lose by letting the GOP win this one. The filibuster is, after all, one of the more anti-democratic parliamentary maneuvers in the federal government's most undemocratic body, the Senate. A tactic not envisioned by the founders, and most famously used by Southern racists to frustrate the passage of civil rights legislation, the filibuster doesn't exactly have a savory tradition.

More than that, the filibuster is no friend to Democrats, whose policies, if not politicians, appeal to a majority of the American public. They may be in the minority now, but Democrats can win again. They can take the Senate and they can take the White House, possibly both, possibly soon. "

(Via Salon.)