Sen. Harry Reid, pretending he doesn't see GOP obstruction.

Sen. Harry Reid, pretending he doesn't see GOP obstruction.

Too many nominees have been blocked due to Republican filibusters. But even more nominees have been stopped by other means, with secret holds and other tactics. We have a large number of judicial emergencies around the country. That means we have too many cases and not enough judges, so I'm watching very closely -- as are the American people -- how these nominees fare in the U.S. Senate. We made some changes to the Senate rules in January to help get nominations through more quickly, but time will tell whether these changes were sufficient enough. We as a body have the power on any given day to change the rules with a simple majority, and I will do that if necessary.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office, responding to our questions about whether they think the original filibuster deal with the GOP was working out:Emphasis mine.

Reid really needs more time to decide whether the agreement is working out? Republicans have filibustered pretty much everything more substantive than Post Office renamings, from President Barack Obama's choice for secretary of defense, to the current watered down gun legislation.

And note, Reid's office refused to comment on legislative filibusters, despite watching gun control legislation watered down to the point of near-irrelevancy because of the need to get 60 votes, rather than a simple majority. The filibuster isn't a situational problem, where it's okay in one instance and not okay in any other. It is bad whether it's used against nominees, and it's bad when used to stymie legislation. It's just bad. So I'm not sure what Reid's office is trying to pull here.

The filibuster must end. It is undemocratic and leads to broken government. Republicans may applaud that sort of thing, but Democrats shouldn't.

It's time to end the filibuster. A total of 125,000 of you have signed the petition asking Harry Reid to end the filibuster. If you haven't signed it yet, add your voice to the issue.