For all their hemming and hawing about filibustering President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks, Democrats, in reality, haven't got a leg to stand on -- and that's thanks to Sen. Harry Reid.

The Washington Times reports that the minority leader's so-called "nuclear option," which he initiated three years ago, eliminated the role of filibusters to block presidential appointees. Reid intended it as a way to ram through all of President Obama's nominees without succumbing to Republican opposition. 

Now, that same nuclear option will help Republicans usher in Trump's cabinet choices with little interference from Democrats. The Times reports: 

The Constitution gives the president the power to nominate top officials and the Senate the role of providing “advice and consent.” That has been understood to mean senators must vote to approve each nominee — and, in recent decades, it has meant a nominee must be able to survive a filibuster.

Both parties trade blame for who’s responsible for things. Democrats, however, intensified the partisan battles under President George W. Bush, using the filibuster to prevent him from naming a series of conservative appeals court judges.

The GOP retaliated under Mr. Obama. Mr. Reid, despite having been part of the Bush-era filibusters, promised to defend the use of the tool as leader. He didn’t. With the support of his fellow Democrats he used a shortcut procedure to change Senate rules: Any nominee save for the Supreme Court can now be confirmed by majority vote.

Under the new rules Mr. Reid managed to push through controversial Obama picks including Alejandro Mayorkas as deputy secretary at Homeland Security and former Rep. Melvin Watt becoming director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Democrats had been confident of keeping control of the White House with Hillary Clinton and of taking back control of the Senate. Mr. Reid, who is retiring at the end of this year, even encouraged Democrats to consider expanding his use of the nuclear option to eliminate the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees.

"It’s clear to me that if the Republicans try to filibuster another circuit court judge, but especially a Supreme Court justice, I’ve told ‘em how and I’ve done it, not just talking about it," Reid said in a past interview. "I did it in changing the rules of the Senate. It’ll have to be done again."

Interestingly enough, some Democrats say they don't regret Reid's use of the nuclear option, intimating that they're at peace with the fact that Republicans will use it as well. 

“I supported what was done,” Sen. Ron Wyden said. “I think it was in the public interest then. I think it is still in the public interest.”

For once, we agree.