When it was still funny to joke about a b-list celebrity challenging Hillary Clinton for the White House, Senate Republicans began exploring parliamentary avenues to root out an entrenched Democrat minority.

In October 2015, a small contingent of freshman senators proposed a devil’s bargain. With control of the White House and Senate up in the air, both parties would agree to some sort of filibuster reform without gaining any unfair advantage. Lucky for them, the effort flopped.