The New York Post, whose parent company's board includes the wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of “sounding like Dr. Strangelove" for his proposal to change Senate rules to end the filibuster for executive branch nominees in the face of historic GOP obstruction.

On July 16, the Senate will be voting on several executive branch nominees that Republicans have opposed. In a recent speech, Sen. Reid said that if Senate Republicans refuse to allow an up-or-down vote on those candidates, he will push a change to Senate rules that will prevent the minority from filibustering executive appointments.

The New York Post reported on Reid's comments by writing in a July 16 article:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is sounding like Dr. Strangelove.

The Nevada Democrat yesterday said he was ready to resort to the “nuclear option” -- blowing up what's left of bipartisan trust in the Senate by jamming through a rules change to end Republican filibusters of President Obama's nominees.

Reed charged that the Democratic-run Senate had to thwart “the power of an extreme minority” stymieing Cabinet nominations.

Unmentioned in the July 16 article was that Elaine Chao, McConnell's wife, sits on the board of directors of Newscorp, the Post's parent company. Like the Post, McConnell has argued that Reid's action would “do permanent damage to this body” and claimed that Reid shouldspend “a little more time working with his colleagues in a collegial way and a little less time trying to undermine and marginalize them.”

Senate Republicans have engaged in unprecedented obsctruction of Obama executive branch nominees, who have had to hurdle more cloture votes -- a vote necessary to overcome a filibuster -- than under any other president in the modern era.

Graphic via People for the American Way