According to this report, enough Democrats have signed on with Reid, and are ready to vote to enact simple majority votes for executive nominees. There are, however, some doubters, including this Senate aide who talked to Ezra Klein.
Whether Reid can get enough Democrats to talk up the nuclear option is an open question. Plenty of his members are looking at this gummed-up Congress, and the prospect of losses in 2014, and wondering why now is a good time to pick this fight. “I'd be more comfortable nuking if we had an explicit agenda we were trying to pass and a Democratic-controlled House that could pass it,” one aide told me. “Absent that, I'm not sure the pain is going to be worth it.”That balky Democrat couldn't possibly be more wrong. This fight is all about 2014. Democrats don't need an explicit agenda to end the filibuster. Republicans have made the case for them a dozen times over, every single time they've blocked good legislation and good nominees. It will be far easier to make a case to voters in 2014 to vote for Democrats if Democrats can show that they've done something concrete to end the gridlock in D.C. To make Congress less of an obstacle. To finally fight back.
Then they take that fight to the House races, and show that House Republicans are the problem, standing in the way of a Senate that's trying to make progress. Whining about Republican obstruction is only going to take Democrats so far. Doing something about Republican obstruction is what the people are looking for from Democrats.