Nuclear option? On joue "dur" au Sénat.

Harry Reid, leader démocrate au Sénat, hausse le ton et bouscule de plus en plus les républicains menés par Mitch McConnell. Pour contrer l'opposition d'une minorité, les sénateurs du parti majoritaire ont parfois recours à ce qu'on appelle la "nuclear option", une arme à deux tranchants puisque l'adversaire peut également l'utiliser lorsque les rôles sont inversés... Normalement, il faut une majorité de 60% pour autoriser la fin des débats et passer au vote. La "nuclear option" permet à une simple majorité d'interrompre les débats... Au risque de ne pas respecter certaines procédures habituelles et s'aliéner l'opinion publique en raison d'un geste "brutal". On l'utilisera donc avec un oeil sur les sondages et les possibilités de perdre la majorité aux prochaines élections. Harry Reid souhaite un vote sur le "Jobs plan d'Obama"

"Did Harry Reid pull the nuclear option in the Senate Thursday night? That all depends what you mean by "nuclear option." Reid did succeed in changing the Senate's rules tonight, but in exceptionally narrow terms. And the only danger for Senate Democrats -- as with setting any new precedent -- is that an opportunistic future GOP majority will seize upon what happened Thursday as an excuse to make much bigger, broader changes to parliamentary procedure, perhaps even nixing the filibuster.

All day -- and really all week -- Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have been involved in a procedural jousting match. McConnell's goal has been to embarrass Democrats -- to force a vote of some kind on the jobs bill President Obama sent to Congress weeks ago, and watch it go down in flames. Reid's goal has been to thwart McConnell, and to call his own vote in the coming days on a modified version of Obama's bill with broader caucus support. That will help Democrats make the case that Republicans alone stand in the way of the American Jobs Act.

Mostly this was about positioning. McConnell wants a version -- any version -- of the Obama jobs bill to fail with bipartisan opposition. He wants to upset Reid's efforts to draw a sharp contrast between the parties over jobs. Knowing that Republicans will filibuster all versions of Obama's jobs bills, Reid wants to make it clear in the public mind that it's the GOP that's preventing a bold jobs package from moving forward."

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/senate-nuclear-option-filibuster-reid-mcconnell-vote.php?ref=fpb