The Democrats sort of back down from their stop-the-Senate threat. Their new threat is to put forward important porposals for the nation! I was afraid that would happen eventually, if Republicans pushed them too far:

“At the same time, Democrats, fearing a backlash, suddenly abandoned talk of using the chamber’s arcane rules to bring the Senate to a standstill in the fight over judges. Instead, they said they intended to call up their measures on health care, education and veterans’ benefits with the hope of making Republicans take what could be politically awkward votes.

“What we are going to attempt to do is move to items that we think are of real importance to the nation,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat. He said Democrats had in recent weeks placed 13 measures on the Senate calendar and would not follow the tradition of allowing the majority simply to proceed to legislation of its choice but would force Republicans to reject the Democratic-sponsored measures.

Republican officials dismissed the Democrats’ change in tone as window dressing and said the result of their planned actions would still effectively bring the Senate to a halt.”