The GOP was threatening to invoke the nuclear option in response to the Dems filibustering Bush's judicial appointments. Here was their reply:
Barack Obama 4/25/05: "The President hasn’t gotten his way. And that
is now prompting a change in the Senate rules that really I think would
change the character of the Senate forever…what I worry about would be
that you essentially still have two chambers the House and the Senate
but you have simply majoritarian absolute power on either side, and
that’s just not what the founders intended."
Hillary Clinton
5/23/2005: "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.' And I guess there just weren’t very many voices on the other side
of the isle that acted the way previous generations of senators have
acted and said 'Mr. President we are with you, we support you, but
that’s a bridge too far we can’t go there.' You have to restrain
yourself Mr. President."
Charles Schumer 5/18/2005: "We are on the
precipice of a crisis, a constitutional crisis. The checks and balances
which have been at the core of this Republic are about to be evaporated
by the nuclear option. The checks and balances which say that if you
get 51% of the vote you don’t get your way 100% of the time. It is
amazing it’s almost a temper tantrum."
Harry Reid 5/18/2005: "Mr.
President the right to extended debate is never more important than the
one party who controls congress and the white house. In these cases the
filibuster serves as a check on power and preserves our limited
government."
Dianne Feinstein 5/18/2005: "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. It begins with judicial nominations. Next will be
executive appointments and then legislation."
Joe Biden 5/23/2005: "This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power. It is a fundamental power grab."
Harry
Reid 5/18/2005: "But no we are not going to follow the Senate rules.
No, because of the arrogance of power of this Republican
administration."
Chris Dodd 5/18/2005: "I’ve never passed a single
bill worth talking about that didn’t have a lead co sponsor that was a
Republican. And I don’t know of a single piece of legislation that’s
ever been adopted here that didn’t have a Republican and Democrat in the
lead. That’s because we need to sit down and work with each other. The
rules of this institution have required that. That’s why we exist. Why
have a bicameral legislative body? Why have two chambers? What were the
framers thinking about 218 years ago? They understood Mr. President that
there is a tyranny of the majority."
Dianne Feinstein 5/18/2005:
"If the Republican leadership insists on forcing the nuclear option the
senate becomes ipso facto the House of Representatives where the
majority rules supreme and the party of power can dominate and control
the agenda with absolute power."
Hillary Clinton 5/23/2005:
"You’ve got majority rule and then you have the senate over here where
people can slow things down where they can debate where they have
something called the filibuster. You know it seems like it’s a little
less than efficient -- well that’s right it is. And deliberately
designed to be so."
Joe Biden 5/23/05: "I say to my friends on the
Republican side you may own the field right now buy you won’t own it
forever I pray God when the Democrats take back control we don't make
the kind of naked power grab you are doing."
Charles Schumer
5/23/2005: "They want their way every single time. And they will change
the rules, break the rules, and misread the constitution so that they
will get their way."
Hillary Clinton 5/23/2005: "The Senate is
being asked to turn itself inside out, to ignore the precedent to ignore
the way our system has work, the delicate balance that we have obtain
that has kept this constitution system going, for immediate
gratification of the present President."
Max Baucus 5/19/2005: "This is the way Democracy ends. Not with a bomb but with a gavel."
If you ever needed proof that there is no difference between either party, here is your answer.
