And the Senate is the same as it was a week ago.
Remember what I was saying months ago: the filibuster was functionally gone for SCOTUS nominations anyway. McConnell was quite clear that the Democrats were never going to be allowed to filibuster any Republican nominee, so whether the rule was left on the books as some illusory thing or not was irrelevant. A tool you can't use might as well be thrown out. The fact that it has now been thrown out just means people can't pretend that an unusable tool is available. I have no patience for pretense.
Comity? That was gone long ago. These people already hated each other. The relationship between the escalation of partisan warfare and personal animosity is tricky. It is hard not to hate someone who is using every trick in the book (and then throwing out the rule book with the nuclear option) to do something you think is morally wrong. It is also much easier to throw out the rules when engaged in conflict with someone you hate. Regardless of the direction of causation, though, the Senate, once the more bipartisan chamber, was as rancorous as the House last week. This week's use of the nuclear option changes nothing.
Isn't this just one more step in the escalating partisan conflict, though? Yes, but McConnell took that step long ago, when he made clear in February that he intended to use the nuclear option if Democrats filibustered, which, given Merrick Garland, they kind of had to do.
Yes, the Senate went nuclear this week. Nothing changed.
With everything going on in Syria and Russia getting pissed off, let's hope that's all the nuclear action we see. I did have some warnings about the risks of that...