[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 67 (Thursday, May 19, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H3588-H3589]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REPUBLICAN ABUSES OF POWER

  (Mr. NADLER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, 36 years ago, Republican Senator Howard 
Baker took to the Senate floor during a Republican-led filibuster of 
Abe Fortas, President Johnson's nominee to be Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court. Senator Baker justified the Republican filibuster by 
stating, ``On any issue the majority, at any given moment, is not 
always right.''
  Some people might be surprised that Senate Republicans led a 
filibuster against a judicial nominee. After all, Senator Frist 
continues to claim all judicial appointees are entitled to an up-or-
down vote, no matter what. It is a disingenuous statement when he 
himself and other proponents of this extreme measure have used the 
filibuster to delay and defeat judicial nominations of the past. It is 
a hypocritical statement when the Republican majority in the Senate 
derailed and defeated 65 of President Clinton's judicial nominations 
without ever permitting them

[[Page H3589]]

a vote or even a hearing, not a vote in committee, not a vote on the 
floor.
  And now that the Republicans are in the majority and have a 
President, they want to prevent Democrats from taking the very same 
actions they have used. They are now trying to change the rules of the 
Senate in the middle of the game to try to take away the rights of the 
minority.
  Senator Baker was correct in 1968 when he said the majority was not 
always right, and it is time Senate Republicans realize that their 
extreme power grab is not in the best interests of either this Congress 
or this Nation.

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