Senate Democrats dropped the filibuster bomb Thursday, and now the question is what kind of fallout will result from the so-called nuclear option.

By a 52-48 vote, the Senate ended the ability of minority Republicans to continue using filibusters to block some of President Barack Obama's judicial and executive nominations, despite the vehement objections of Republicans.

"Instead of 60 votes to break a filibuster, its now  51 votes – a simple majority," CNN's Dana Bash reports.

"Democrats say, they get that this landmark rules change benefits them now but could really hurt them some day when they lose the control of the Senate and end up back in the minority. But they essentially say that they really don’t have any choice, they prefer to take that risk, rather than deal with what they call 'continued obstruction' now."

Republicans warned the controversial move would worsen the already bitter partisan divide in Washington, complaining it took away a time-honored right for any member of the Senate minority party to filibuster.

"This changes everything, this changes everything," veteran GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona told reporters. He blamed newer Democratic senators who never served as the minority party for pushing the issue, adding: "They succeeded and they will pay a very, very heavy price for it."

CNN Political Analyst and Executive Editor of the Daily Beast John Avlon weighs in on the historic change, saying Democrats pulled the trigger "because things are objectively worse than ever before when it comes to abuse of the filibuster.” (SEE VIDEO BELOW)

“The key stat that the senate majority leader's office is putting out is that half of all nomination filibusters occurred under this president. And that really helps illustrates just how much precedent has been blown up over the last, in particular, decade: Filibusters out of control, nominations aren't going through, promises have been repeatedly broken, trust is at an all-time low inside the institution. So now Harry Reid switches his position and drops the nuclear option. It's an extraordinary moment."

Avlon says the situation is underscores the significant lack of bipartisanship in the Senate.

“They’re feeling they're essentially cutting their losses, and this way they can get at least get some nominations through.”

Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) says that changing the filibuster rules will improve how the Senate works. (SEE VIDEO BELOW)

“There's no reason that changing this to majority rule on appointments will create ill will.  State legislative bodies, Senates do this every day.  They find ways to work together, people of goodwill will find ways to work together here," Kaine says.

“I have worked in a legislative body that operated by majority rule and we worked together fine,” Sen. Kaine says. “This will not make anything worse.  You can work together in a majority rule situation, just like you can with filibusters, holds and clotures. I actually believe that the Senate rules were impeding us working together. And look, the Senate this year has passed historic immigration reform.  We passed a historic Marketplace Fairness Act last week, we passed the historic bill that guarantee LGBT Americans couldn't be discriminated against in the workplace. The Senate is doing things.  We are reaching across the aisle and solving problems.  This will not change that in one respect.”

Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) agrees with "New Day” Anchor Chris Cuomo that the GOP Obamacare playbook should contain solutions and less criticism. (SEE VIDEO BELOW)

When asked if solutions should be in the playbook, Rep. Yoho responds, “I agree 100%.... Criticism at this point is not going to help anybody. We need solutions. We’ve got two great solutions out there. We talk about it all the time.”