If you've been following the judicial confirmation wars of recent years, you're already aware that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has repeatedly taken off the gloves, forcing Democrats to live by the hardball partisan rules they've established over the course of numerous ends-driven power grabs. He detonated Harry Reid's nuclear option after the minority party launched an unprecedented filibuster against Justice Gorsuch's nomination, and has subsequently trimmed and stymied other delay tactics, as Democrats have adjusted their approach to across-the-board resistance.

The filibuster is in peril.

With Republicans expected to change the Senate rules to slash debate time on President Donald Trump’s nominees this week, it will mark the third time the “nuclear option” — changing Senate rules by a simple majority — has been triggered in just six years.

Senate Republicans will invoke the body’s so-called nuclear option Wednesday and use a simple majority to change the chamber’s rules for confirming many presidential appointees.

Senate Republicans are set to hit the gas on confirming hundreds of President Trump’s nominees by muscling through a rules change that would dramatically cut down on the amount of time required to confirm district court and executive nominations.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who supports the change, hasn’t tipped his hand on when the proposal will come to the Senate floor. But members of his leadership team say it will be taken up after lawmakers return to Washington next week.

President Trump on Friday publicly urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to deploy the so-called “nuclear option” to jam through a controversial spending package that includes billions in border-wall funds, as Washington’s warring parties remain on a collision course toward a partial government shutdown at midnight.

President Trump, following comments from a few Republican Senators, tweeted that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should move to change the Senate rules to require just a simple majority to move forward on legislation (the “nuclear option” to end the 60 vote threshold.)

"It is depressing; I'm very depressed,” Republican Sen. John McCain said this week.

“We're going down the wrong path here,” Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said.

Harry Reid's legacy is thus cemented. Democrats' unprecedented filibuster of Judge Neil Gorsuch has been broken under the nuclear option they pioneered in 2013. Every single Republican voted to invoke the Reid Rule, including some who had expressed a strong hesitancy to do so; that's how indefensible Democrats' conduct has been. The Senate will now reach cloture on the nomination with 51 votes, setting up a final confirmation tomorrow. It's over. Neil Gorsuch will be the next Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court:

Senate Republicans eliminated the filibuster on Supreme Court nominees Thursday, thwarting Democratic opposition to Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court and removing a key pillar of the minority’s power to exert influence in the chamber.