At this week’s Take Back the American Dream conference, co-sponsored by Van Jones, progressive activists were already plotting how to maintain their policy victories after President Obama leaves office. One speaker said progressives must concentrate on electing 41 of their own to the Senate so they could filibuster any conservative attempts to roll back the size and scope of the federal government.

But thanks to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the filibuster may not be the weapon it once was if Republicans eventually recapture the Senate majority. Last night, in an effort to avoid an embarrassing vote on President Obama’s American Jobs Act, Reid changed the Senate rules by a bare majority vote in order to shut down a Republican amendment to China currency manipulation. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who knew Democrats did not have 50 votes in their caucus to pass Obama’s second stimulus, offered the legislation as an amendment to the China bill that Reid has wanted to pass for months.