Perhaps the other Republicans in the Senate, including McConnell, thought Reid was bluffing and did not have the 50 votes he needed. But it was very clear to anyone watching closely that he did—thus, my explanation that McConnell and his colleagues provoked this action. Why? One reason is that McConnell needs a more compelling target to shore up his shaky reelection position. Obamacare is not enough in a state, Kentucky, where it is working better than anywhere else. Pointing to the Democrats as an evil force trampling on the Constitution enables him to push attention in a different direction, given that a tiny sliver of Kentuckians approve of his role brokering the reopening of the government—he is the one standing against the un-American Democrats. And if McConnell prevails, and if Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House in 2017, he can blame Reid and the Democrats when he removes all remaining filibuster roadblocks.

On to the consequences. First, it is important to note that the only change here is the threshold number for cloture. All the other ways senators can delay action remain in place, including denying unanimous consent, requiring two days for a cloture petition to ripen, and demanding the full debate time after cloture, among many others. The hold, which is basically a notice by a senator that he or she will deny unanimous consent to move forward on a bill or nomination, is still there, albeit with less potency. Will Republicans use these weapons more than in the past? Sure. But if they overuse them, bringing the place to a screeching halt over even minor nominees for boards and commissions, Reid will be tempted to change the rules again. That is a fairly potent deterrent against meltdown.

As for holds, they will stay. All senators use them and treasure them, as a way to grab the attention of a White House or Cabinet office that often will just ignore their wishes or stonewall their legitimate concerns. But now, holds will only apply for a limited time, with a sharp increase in the power of the majority leader to decide how long that time will be. If he wants to accommodate an individual senator with a grievance against the president or a department, he can sit on a key nomination for weeks or months. If he doesn't, he can ignore the hold, even though it will still require him to jump through some hoops to move a nomination to a vote. Majority leaders could always ignore holds if they desired, but if they did so for minority senators, the minority party would unite and support a filibuster. Now, he can reward friends and punish enemies more easily. This reality, so far as I can tell, has gone completely unnoticed by the cognoscenti. One caveat: If individual renegades like Ted Cruz decide to abuse the hold process by putting them on every nominee, there will be some incentive to change the fundamentals of unanimous consent agreements, to require more than one senator to block immediate consideration of nominations, at least. Indeed, Lott and Tom Daschle proposed just this in The Washington Post. But for now, the hold will remain, because it suits all senators and it empowers Reid.