What if the Falcons and the Giants were tied in a hard-fought game—and the officials suddenly changed the rules to ensure a Giants’ victory? All fair-minded people would denounce such flagrant dishonesty.

Yet, that is exactly what the Republicans are trying to do by eliminating the US Senate filibuster. Whatever you may think of its application in specific cases, the right to unlimited debate has been embedded in our political culture, for good reason. It's a bulwark against a temporary majority enacting laws that threaten our basic rights. What a blow to cherished conservative principles it is for the Republicans to call for its abolition. It ranks right up there with their abandonment of the supposedly bedrock Republican principle of fiscal responsibility. The chief Republican platform these days is sheer hypocrisy.

The real goal is to appoint judges who will roll back decades of progress in protecting worker rights, the environment, and privacy. One of the first judges appointed would be Janice Rodgers Brown of California. She follows an extremist judicial philosophy that calls for the courts to block Congress from guaranteeing such things as the 40 hour work week, the minimum wage, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act. All Americans should block this naked power play designed to gut measures that only extremists oppose.