I've been watching the goings on the Senate floor on C-Span. It's really instructive.

On the one side, you have the Democrats arguing to keep to the filibuster because it not only protects minority rights but also maintains the delicate balance of powers by not turning the Senate into a rubber stamp for the Executive when the Executive and the Legislature are of the same party.

On the other side, you have the Republicans who are speciously arguing that the filibuster has never been used to block judges (it has. see Abe Fortas) and that what they are attempting to (i.e. the "Nuclear Option" has constitutional precedent, which, of course, it does not. (by the way, it's amazing to me how Senators can flat out lie on the floor of the Senate - John Kyl of Arizona just said that he wasn't concerned when Democrats said that the filibuster is something they might want to reserve for a future when they are in the minority and there is a Democratic president and he said it wasn't an issue because they, the Republicans, didn't even think of the filibuster as a tool at their exposal, conveniently forgetting Abe Fortas and Richard Paez. Amazing.)

It's on the point on getting boring listening to Senators on both sides bloviate all day. There were the incredible statements of Rick Santorum equating what the Democrats are doing, by preventing this powergrab to the actions of Adolph Hitler after he occupied Paris which will raise some eyebrows in the left wing blogs but will be ignored by the media in general. But that was the only really exciting moment of the day.

I've been waiting to hear from Hagel or McCain or Snowe or Collins or one of the handful of moderate Republicans Senators who might speak out against this unprecedented power grab, but I have so far been disappointed. I bet the squeeze is being put on them so tight by K street lobbyist and the Majority Leader that when this whole thing is over McCain et al will be able to join the Vienna Boy's Choir.