Mitch McConnell and his merry band rightwing nihilists went ahead and changed the rules—they went for the nuclear option—ending the 60-vote requirement for Supreme Court confirmations. Neil M. Gorsuch is going to sit on the Supreme Court, he's going to sit in Merrick Garland's seat, and he's going to sit in that seat and issue rulings and pull the court to the right for the next three or four decades. But we shouldn't be sad about the end of the filibuster today, Josh Marshall argues at TPM, because the filibuster ended a long, long time ago:

In practice, Republicans abolished the Supreme Court filibuster in 2005. This may be seem odd since you not have heard about this. But it's true. Back in 2005, when now-Justices Roberts and Alito came up for confirmation in rapid succession, Republicans made it very clear that the they would resort to the 'nuclear option' if Democrats tried to block either nomination. In response Democrats worked out a deal which amounted to preserving the Supreme Court filibuster on condition that they never use it. In other words, it was abolished.

Go read the whole thing.