SocialistMop.com Political Humor for the Liberty-Minded
Democrats in the Senate today exercised a controversial parliamentary maneuver known as the “nuclear option.” Under normal circumstances, Senate rules require a supermajority of 60 votes to pass a resolution, end a filibuster, or confirm an executive or judicial nominee. However, when the nuclear option is used, only a simple majority of 51 votes are required to approve a measure.
Today, Senate Democrats invoked the nuclear option to require a simple majority vote to end the filibuster of executive and judicial nominees during confirmation hearings (excluding Supreme Court nominations), which dramatically increases the speed with which they can rubber stamp their appointees.
But, Democrats in the Senate were not always so cozy with the nuclear option. Back in 2005, when Senate Republicans attempted to use this contentious procedure to end Democrat-run filibusters of President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees, they were up in arms about it. You would have thought the world was going to end, based on their rhetoric:
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)
You have simply majoritarian, absolute power on either side, and that’s just not what the Founders intended.
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
So, this President has come to the majority here in the Senate and basically said, “Change the rules. Do it the way I want it done.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
We are on the precipice of a crisis, a Constitutional crisis.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
The nuclear option, if successful, will turn the Senate into a body that could have its rules broken at any time by a majority of Senators unhappy with any position taken by the minority.
Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE)
This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power. It is a fundamental power grab.
I pray God, when the Democrats take back control, we don’t make the kind of naked power grab that you are doing.
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)
But no, we are not going to follow the Senate rules. No. Because of the arrogance of power of this Republican administration.
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT)
What were the Framers thinking about 218 years ago? They understood, Mr. President, that there is a tyranny of the majority.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)
This is the way democracy ends, not with a bomb, but with a gavel.
Here is a video compilation showing these hypocrites on the left give impassioned speeches on the Senate floor in 2005 about preserving democracy, defending liberty, and embracing “that dusty, old document” known as the Constitution only when it was convenient for them:
