What do Nevada and Senator Harry Reid have in common?

Nope, it's not that Reid is from Nevada.  Rather, it's just that both have gone nuclear by rigging parliamentary rules so that weak Dem senators are protected during awkward votes. A typical tactic by the minority party is to add embarrassing amendments to a bill after cloture so that those senators facing a tough re-election have to think twice about voting for unpopular bills.

Well, it used to be typical.  Thanks to Reid, that's no longer the case.  More, from Allahpundit of Hot Air:

Post-cloture amendments are a cheap and easy way for the minority party to force the majority to vote on proposals that might somehow embarrass them. The embarrassing proposal in this case was … Obama’s jobs bill, which Democrats still don’t uniformly support. Apparently, to spare The One the humiliation of having members of his own party vote no on the PassThisBillRightAway Act of 2011, Reid freaked out and nuked the GOP’s right to offer amendments entirely. That’s how much of a fiasco O’s jobs plan is right now: Simply to avoid having to vote on it, longstanding Senate rules are being rewritten on the fly by … his own party.

 There's more by Allahpundit, and some good links at The PJ Tatler.  But the Democrats are desperate, given President Obama's dismal track record and appalling poll numbers, and will apparently do anything to hold onto Senatorial seats.

2012 can't come soon enough.