McConnell attacked Reid over a threat to change the Senate filibuster rules. | John Shinkle/POLITICO McConnell blows up at Reid

Mitch McConnell attacked Harry Reid on the Senate floor over a threat to change Senate filibuster rules, warning that it could allow the GOP to kill Barack Obama’s health care law with a simple majority if Republicans win control of the Senate.

In a tense, 45-minute exchange Wednesday morning unusual even in today’s polarized Capitol climate, McConnell ambushed Reid, warning that any changes in filibuster rules would lead to a slippery slope that could kill major Democratic priorities if Republicans win control of the Senate.


“Let’s assume we have a new president, and I’m the majority leader next time and we’re operating at 51,” McConnell said, “I wonder how comforting that is to my friends on the other side. How does it make you feel about the security of Obamacare, for example?”

McConnell’s outrage comes as Reid has considered backpedaling on a promise from last year that he wouldn’t change the rules other than through regular order, which requires two-thirds support of the Senate. If Democrats keep the majority, Reid is signaling he’d use arcane procedures to change the rules by 51 votes so senators can no longer filibuster to prevent bills from coming up to the floor for debate. Under Reid’s plan, they‘d still be able to filibuster in any number of circumstances, including to block a final vote on legislation, though he suggested that senators should actually carry out their filibusters on the floor, rather than simply threaten them.

But McConnell opposes any changes to the filibuster, and he now says if he’s in the majority it’ll be hard to argue to his conference why the GOP shouldn’t change the rules by a simple majority — given Reid’s new position on the matter.

Critics of changing filibuster rules by a 51-vote majority call this move the “nuclear option” and compare it to the proposal by Republican Leader Bill Frist in 2005 to limit filibusters on judicial nominees, a threat that prompted Democratic outrage.

“Do we want a simple majority of 51 to ramrod the minority on every issue?” McConnell said. “I think it’s worth thinking about over the next few months as the American people decide who is going to be in the majority in the Senate and who is going to be the president of the United States.”

Reid was having none of it, accusing McConnell of bottling up legislation for the sole purpose of slowing down action and hurting Obama politically. He said Republicans in the House, backed by McConnell, were catering to tea party demands by embracing bills that are outside the American political mainstream. And he blamed Republicans for rendering the Senate “dysfunctional” by forcing him to file needless motions to overcome filibuster threats through the course of even the most routine floor proceedings.

“We’ve tried very hard all different ways to move legislation in this body, but for the first time in the history of the country, the No. 1 issue in the Senate of the United States has been a procedural thing,” Reid said. “How do we get on a bill, a motion to proceed to something? That has taken over the Senate and it needs to go away. We shouldn’t have to do that anymore.”

At issue is the chamber’s hallowed filibuster, a potent delaying tactic that requires 60 votes to overcome in the Senate. Virtually every move in the Senate can be filibustered, whether it’s to bring a measure for a final vote, consider an amendment to pending legislation, or bring a bill forward to start the debate.

Reid has long accused the Republicans of badly abusing the filibuster, which forces him to file time-consuming motions that require days to consider. But Republicans counter that Reid has brought this problem upon himself by moving quickly to prevent the GOP from offering amendments more than any other majority leader, an effort known as “filling the tree.”

The issue is expected to be front-and-center in an upcoming “60 Minutes” report about the Senate, where the evening news program held a joint interview with Reid and McConnell.

Accusing Reid of “centralizing” the Senate in his leadership office, McConnell on Wednesday tapped into GOP complaints that they have been unable to offer amendments on the floor as freely as they’d like.

“Quit blaming everybody else,” McConnell scolded Reid. “It’s not the House. It’s not the Senate. It’s not the motion to proceed. Why don’t we operate like we used to under leaders of both parties, and understood that amendments we don’t like are just part of the process because everybody here doesn’t agree on everything?”

But Reid said the blame lies with the GOP, saying that if senators want to filibuster legislation, they should come to the floor and argue endlessly, such as in the movie classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” rather than simply threaten to do it.

“I do believe when the filibuster came into being was to help get legislation passed,” he said. “I repeat: It’s not to stop legislation from passing, and that’s not appropriate. So I’m convinced the best thing to do with the filibuster is have filibusters.”

At the beginning of last year, Reid and McConnell reached a “gentleman’s agreement” to preserve the filibuster, and the two men agreed to “exercise restraint” over when Reid would cut off amendments and when McConnell would threaten filibusters the motions to proceed to legislation. The two men agreed that they would oppose any efforts to change the rules in this Congress or the next Congress other than through the regular order, which requires two-thirds support in the Senate.

But after witnessing the logjam of the last year, Reid now says he was wrong. He says he wants to prevent senators from being able to filibuster the ability to bring up legislation. Now, Reid says, he’d use arcane procedure to change the rules by 51 votes, a process he invoked last year on a narrow Senate rule that enraged Republicans.

“I think what has happened the last few years of changing the basic rules of the Senate where we have not 50 votes to pass something but it takes 60 on everything, I think that’s wrong.”