[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 66 (Wednesday, May 18, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H3442]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE SENATE FILIBUSTER

  (Ms. WATSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, today, we may find out whether President 
Bush and his Congressional colleagues want to turn the Senate into a 
second House of Representatives, a rubber stamp for a right wing agenda 
and radical judges.
  President Bush wants to pack the Federal courts with the extreme 
right fringe of this country, putting at risk the rights and liberties 
this country has fought for and protected for centuries. He wants to 
create a Supreme Court that will not act as an independent branch but 
instead wag its tail at every beck and call.
  Mr. Speaker, Republican leaders are out of control. Instead of 
governing and tending to the Nation's business, they are on a quest for 
absolute power. They are on a mission to trash our Founding Fathers' 
commitment to the separation of powers and the abhorrence of simple 
majority rule.
  While the Republicans continue their odyssey for absolute power, 
Democrats are fighting to protect our constitutional checks and 
balances and to ensure that we remain a Nation ruled by laws and not by 
men.

                          ____________________