9 January—Sen. Harry Reid is dead and buried and is being eulogized as one of the great ones. Yeah, right. So let’s recall that he was at least as corrupt as any other powerful politician, given the way he personally profited handsomely (i.e., well into seven figures) from things like land deals. No surprise there. And, as we all know, party for party, none is less corrupt than any other, corporately or severally.

A faithful and reliable Nevada Democrat, Harry Reid certainly spoke softly and even pleasantly but was an effective manipulator who wielded a huge truncheon. He was the scummiest Senate Majority Leader I’d had the pleasure of never meeting. In truth, though, Republican Mitch McConnell, who followed him, is pretty scummy too; and Charles Schumer, the current self-serving Democrat controlling the Senate majority, is easily the scummiest by light years.

Harry Reid will be remembered as the cunning, opportunistic legislative boss who opened the door to killing the treasured filibuster because it wasn’t to his advantage. The word filibuster is derived from the Dutch word “vrijbuiter,” and, more recently, the Spanish word “filibustero,” both meaning “freebooter.”

The filibuster is essentially the only effective power retained by a minority party in the U.S. Senate to kill or delay legislation. Obstruction, stonewalling. Absolutely necessary. And it’s only called for on certain occasions when a Senate majority and President are in the same party and/or of the same mind.

The Senate makes its own rules and can modify those rules, make new ones, or do virtually anything that suits its fancy with a simple majority vote. That includes defining super-majorities required for breaking filibusters. So what if it doesn’t make sense, it’s the U.S. Senate.

Talking filibusters like Mr. Smith’s when he went to cinematic Washington and Strom Thurmond’s record (but ultimately unsuccessful) one in real life—the old bastard held forth for 24 hours and 18 minutes to stop the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957—required a two-thirds vote for cloture, shutting them down. Two-thirds wasn’t easy to obtain, so the Senate, for its own convenience, reduced it to three-fifths—60 out of 100—in 1975.

Getting past confusing Senate rules, then, in 2013, when Barry Obama was President and Harry Reid ruled the Senate, Republicans, as was their right, were using the filibuster to block Obama’s judicial nominees. Even three-fifths couldn’t do the trick. So Reid fiddled the filibuster rules to not apply to federal judgeships below the Supreme Court level.

That certainly was able to get Obama’s judges confirmed. Clever of Harry. But it also paved the way for Mitch McConnell to eliminate the filibuster on Supreme Court justices, too.

That allowed the Republican Senate to confirm three justices the Democrats would have preferred never to have seen. So Harry Reid’s filibuster weasel came back to bite him in the ass, which he so richly deserved. And if Charles Schumer ever gets the chance to oversee the death of the filibuster for his party’s convenience, his scummy ass is also bound to be bitten . . .