It’s starting to look like Janet Yellen’s confirmation as chairman of the Federal Reserve may have to be pushed through under Harry Reid’s “nuclear option.” The outspoken fan of inflation comes up for a vote on Monday. Yet a cable from the American Principles Project, which is one of the tribunes of sound money, reports that in a test vote two weeks ago there were 34 “no” votes, “with at least two others not voting.” So it may yet be that under traditional rules Mrs. Yellen couldn’t win cloture.

This is no small thing as the Federal Reserve sets outs on its second century. There has never been a nominee facing this kind of resistance, and it’s astounding in a Senate controlled by the party that holds the presidency. The liveliest opposition heretofore was to Chairman Bernanke, who was opposed by 30 senators (11 of them Democrats) when he was put up by President Obama for a second term as chairman. Mrs. Yellen is even more a friend of inflation than the chairman she’d succeed.

Feature the opposition she faces. The 34 “no” votes in American Principles’s test included Ayotte of New Hampshire, Barrasso and Enzi of Wyoming, Blunt of Missouri, Boozman and McCain of Arizona, Burr of North Carolina, Crapo of Idaho, Coats of Indiana, Cochran and Wicker of Mississippi, Cornyn and Cruz of Texas, Fischer of Nebraska, Graham and Scott of South Carolina, Grassley of Iowa, Heller of Nevada, Hoeven of North Dakota, Inhofe of Oklahoma, and Johnson of Wisconsin.

Also included are Lee of Utah, McConnell and Paul of Kentucky, Moran of Kansas, Portman of Ohio, Risch of Idaho, Roberts of Kansas, Rubio of Florida, Sessions and Shelby of Alabama, Thune of South Dakota, Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Vitter of Louisiana. Not voting in the test but probably opposed were Senators Flake of Arizona and Johanns of Nebraska. Not voting and maybe against her were Senators Alexander of Tennessee and Chambliss and Isakson of Georgia. Senator Manchin of West Virginia voted for cloture but is understood to oppose confirmation.

If this holds up, it’s possible that there could be 40 votes opposed to confirming Mrs. Yellen. This is against a history in which all confirmations of Fed chairmen save for the second of Bernanke and Volcker were passed by unanimous or near-unanimous Senates. If Senator Reid has to use the nuclear option to get Mrs. Yellen through, it would be, in essence, a measure of the radioactivity of the Fed. Even if the opposition is under 40 votes, it is shaping up as a sign that we are not at the end of the debate over monetary policy but at the beginning.

One power yet to be heard is the bond market, a fact of which we were reminded in an important op-ed piece in this morning’s Wall Street Journal. The piece is by the American Priniciples Project’s chairman, Sean Fieler. He notes that it wasn’t just Democrats’ losses in the 1994 mid-term that doomed Hillarycare but the “power of the bond market.” He argued the muscle of the bond market is going to be needed to roll back the federal over-reach of the Obama years.

The bond market’s silence so far, he suggests, has been a product of bond-buying done by the Fed itself and championed by Mrs. Yellen. “So long as a threat of the Federal Reserve’s bond buying looms, even rising bond yields are unlikely to produce discipline in Washington,” Mr. Fieler writes in the Journal. He wants the Senate to condition its confirmation of Mrs. Yellen on a resolution for capping the Fed’s balance sheet at $4.5 trillion cap and an unwinding of what he calls “the Fed’s monetary adventurism.”

Far-fetched? So was Congressman Ron Paul’s bill calling for an audit of the Fed. For years it sagged in the House. Then, a year and a half ago, it suddenly passed the House by an over-whelming bi-partisan majority. It’s a reminder that while the campaign for sound money may enjoy support of but a minority of the Senate, things can change. It will be something for Mrs. Yellen and the other governors of the Fed to remember no matter to what device Mr. Reid has to resort to get her confirmed as the chairman of our central bank.