It’s a momentous occasion — a remembrance of one of the few days in history when everyone who was alive remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news.

I want to say only a couple of things.

First, Lee Harvey Oswald was the killer. There is no credible evidence that anyone else was involved. Have you been to the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas? You can stand very near the exact spot where Oswald took his shot, and look down at the “x” on the street that marks where Kennedy was hit. It doesn’t look that far. In pictures, it might look far, but pictures never tell the real story. It’s not that far.

Second, JFK had his faults, but he was a very witty and engaging personality who captured the country’s imagination. (And he lowered taxes!) His death was a tragedy for the country, as would be the death of any American president.

Dallas is holding its first memorial to JFK today. The city unfairly took a black eye for this assassination, when the only black eye it truly deserved was being a clone of those Eastern cities. (That’s the Fort Worth boy in me talking.)

I hope this is a day the country can come together, but in Harry Reid’s hyperpartisan America, I’m realistic enough to doubt this is possible.

Blogs sometimes have a way of creating catch phrases. One troll at this blog famously flounced with this comment:

haha. I finally got to patterico! I work here is done. Screw off, folks.

“I work here is done” has lived on for more than four years and is now a part of the history of this blog.

A recent potential catch phrase came up at Popehat and I wanted to highlight it:

The elitists in our society are making an example of Mr. Shuler. Because he is independent. He does not have to answer to anyone. (i.e. his boss, political party, or his editor) Moreover Mr. Shuler has what some people may refer to as “BALL”.

I demand that this phrase be immortalized.

It has competition, though. Brett Kimberlin’s moronic RICO lawsuit against half the conservative blogosphere contains the following phrase about me:

His orders are followed, his directives are heeded, his legal analysis is unquestioned, and his statements are believed.

“His orders are followed, his directives are heeded” is destined to become a classic.

And why not? After all . . . I have what some people may refer to as “BALL.”

For you ADHD readers who couldn’t be bothered to read to the end of last night’s post, I argued that Republicans should be overjoyed that Harry Reid has abolished the filibuster for judicial nominees.

As I have always (consistently!) argued: an up-or-down vote is what judicial nominees deserve under the Constitution. But for those who don’t care about principle, here is the argument for why eliminating the filibuster of judicial nominees is a winner: you can’t tie your own hands when you are in power, on the hope that Democrats will feel constrained to tie their own hands when they are in power. We just saw the folly of that mode of thinking, and I hope the lesson is sinking in, because it goes deeper than this filibuster. They’ll take it away from us in a Supreme Court nomination fight if they feel like it. They’ll steamroll us on simple legislation if they feel like it.

If they can do it, they will do it. It’s liberating to know, deep in our bones, that principle will never constrain them when countervailing pressures get strong. It will keep us from acting weakly (again) when we are in power. And we will be — maybe not tomorrow, but one day.

The Wall Street Journal comes along to echo my thoughts in a very well stated piece that I will quote at length, because it’s chock full of good phrases you will want to use again and again:

The move shows how foolish Republicans like John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Orrin Hatch were to worry that if they broke the filibuster, Democrats would then do it too. Democrats did it anyway. The only way to deter bloody-minded Democratic behavior is to treat Democrats as they treat Republicans. Democrats sicced special prosecutors on GOP Presidents for years, but they gave up the independent-counsel statute only after Ken Starr investigated Bill Clinton.

The immediate result of Harry Reid’s power play will be that President Obama has a freer hand to pursue his agenda through regulation and the courts. . . .

. . . .

The silver lining is that the end of the nominee filibuster will work for conservatives too. The next time they hold the Senate and White House, Republicans should employ the same weapon. Democrats are pretending that they are only breaking the filibuster for lower-court nominees, not for the Supreme Court. They can dream on.

The next GOP President should line up Federalist Society alumni for judicial nominations like planes waiting to take off at O’Hare International Airport. Imagine two or three more Clarence Thomases on the High Court confirmed with 51 Senate votes. Planned Parenthood can send its regrets to Harry Reid.

Amen. The piece ends by pointing out that ObamaCare can now be repealed by 51 votes in the Senate. As long as we have those 51 votes — and the will to cast them.

People worry that this will make the Senate more like the House? Look at the Senate and look at the House. Which one do you prefer? OK then.

We have obtained the moral permission to exercise raw power. All we have to do now is get it.