Tom McMahon, the executive director of the DNC, just sent out an anti-nuclear option email to supporters that includes this passage:

[Republicans are] trying to seize absolute control over all three branches of government — and they will do anything to get what they want. In one move they will try to simultaneously crush all dissent in the Senate and destroy the bedrock democratic principle of a fair and independent judiciary.

Time to restate the obvious: The nuclear option does not give Republicans absolute control of the Senate, it will not “crush all dissent in the Senate,” and it will not destroy the “principle of a fair and independent judiciary.” I don’t support the nuclear option, but this hysterical, over-the-top rhetoric makes Democrats look foolish. Losing the right to filibuster judicial nominees does not mean you can’t be an active opposition that can exercise its powers of dissent in all kinds of ways. It just means you can’t require a supermajority to approve a nomination. There’s a difference.

(Previous posts on Tom McMahon and the nuclear option.)