[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3423-3424]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            MINORITY RIGHTS

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, on Tuesday morning just past, we had 
our usual Democratic Senate caucus lunch. We discuss lots of things at 
those lunch meetings. But we were all struck by an appeal from our 
dearly beloved colleague Senator Robert C. Byrd, whom I consider a dear 
friend of long standing. I have been here over 20 years. When he rose 
to encourage all of us to resist subverting existing Senate rules to 
bypass an important process which permitted the minority in the Senate 
to challenge the Senate Republican majority to run roughshod over the 
rights of the minority, to exercise longstanding rules that permitted 
them a voice, Senator Byrd pleaded with us, not as a Democrat, not as a 
partisan, but as citizens and Senators, to fight to preserve the rights 
of a minority by being able to use a tactic called a filibuster as a 
means of protection for the minority.
  We have to remember that in the recent elections for President, 57 
million people voted for John Kerry, and they were a minority. This 
Senate decides to ignore those voices and concerns of a minority of 
that size?
  The Senators who voted against cloture recently represented 19 
million more constituents than the majority. Can that be constructed as 
a tyranny of the minority when the Senators who were against cloture 
represented 19 million people more than the majority who wanted 
cloture? Tyranny of the minority. Outrageous.
  Senator Byrd pleaded with Members to remind our Republican colleagues 
that such a rules change could once be at their expense, that their 
constituents could be deprived of their appropriate rights to a voice 
in legislative or executive matters.
  I offer these comments as a prelude to remarks I am about to make. We 
have seen some ugly personal attacks recently by the Republican Party 
against our Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid. He was called an 
obstructionist. He was referred to in sarcastic and insulting terms, as 
well as our former majority leader, Senator Robert C. Byrd, and 
Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean.
  The other side cannot beat us with the strength of their ideas. They 
are resorting to the same tactics they used against Senator Daschle--
personal attacks on family members and attacks on character. This is 
shameless behavior.
  Not too long ago we had an election in Georgia in which Max Cleland, 
a former Senator, a triple amputee, was portrayed as being soft on 
defense. He was being portrayed as a coward when it came to defending 
our country. He lost three limbs, two legs and an arm, in the defense 
of his Nation. And they succeeded with these shameless tactics.
  We see a continuation of that. It has to stop. Whenever they are 
short of

[[Page 3424]]

ideas, they are long on insults, with shameless name-calling.
  Yesterday, a group calling itself the Republican Jewish Coalition 
attacked Senator Byrd over a historical reference he made on Hitler's 
rise to power in Germany. It was not an anti-Semitic remark. I resent 
the fact they are raising that kind of an insinuation. I am proud of my 
America. I am proud of my citizenship and the duty I served my country 
with when I wore a uniform and that I serve my country with now. I am 
also proud of my Jewish heritage. I resent it when any group steps up 
to use the shameless insinuations and challenges and insults being put 
forward.
  Senator Byrd is known by everyone in this Chamber and people who have 
served for many years past as a great historian. He uses lessons from 
history to teach. On Tuesday just past, Senator Byrd at our luncheon 
issued a stern warning before we do anything irresponsible such as 
changing longstanding Senate rules with this notorious nuclear option 
which says reduce the numbers needed to object to something the 
majority has proposed.
  That is the structure of democracy. Minority voices are to be heard. 
We say it in our Constitution. We say it in our courtrooms. It does not 
matter where.
  Senator Byrd's warning came in the form of a lesson of history. He 
simply said that when you change the rules, you change the laws to suit 
your convenience, you are engaged in a tyranny. As the saying goes, 
those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
  Senator Byrd talked about how a threatened filibuster in this Senate 
defeated FDR's plan to pack the Supreme Court. We are talking about a 
Democratic President. That was an option that was available according 
to the rules that the minority could use. Senator Byrd reminded the 
Senate the other day how in Germany Adolf Hitler twisted the Reichstag 
to pass his enabling act, the act that removed the obstructions that 
were blocking Hitler's plans. It was a historical lesson we should pay 
attention to. But now, Senator Byrd's words are being twisted by this 
group.
  To show some of the shameless tactics they are using, look at this 
picture. It shows masked men, obviously suicide bombers, with a child 
strapped with explosives and suggesting that Democrats are responsible 
for this kind of a condition. It is an outrage. We will not stand 
silent when the Republican National Committee encourages this kind of 
behavior. That is how they beat Max Cleland, and that is how they beat 
Senator Daschle. We are not going to let them win without telling the 
American people this is a shameful kind of tactic. They have no 
scruples when they do something like this.
  No one is suggesting the Republicans are a disloyal party or that 
they have a particular hate design to their association. But when any 
group associated with the party suggests that suicide bombers are 
something that Democrats encourage, to trifle with the loss of life 
that occurred in Israel, and now we see it in Baghdad--how do we feel 
about our soldiers serving so bravely and gallantly in Iraq, losing 
their lives? How do we feel about the Iraqis who lost over 100 of their 
citizens in one day in a suicide bomb attack? We feel terrible.
  As a consequence, when something like this, something as scurrilous 
as this is used, we will condemn it. We are proud of Senator Byrd. He 
has served this country nobly for many years. Did we disagree with him 
on some things? Absolutely. We disagree with each other on many 
occasions. That is what our responsibility is, to disagree when we 
think something is wrong.
  I hope this group will not continue this insinuation that Democrats 
are disloyal, that Democrats would stand for suicide bombers who kill 
not only Israelis, who kill our soldiers. Is that what they want to say 
about Democrats? Perhaps a look in the mirror by people at the top of 
the administration to examine their own military service and see if 
they were there to protect the rights of our people.
  Use a tactic like this? It cannot work, it shouldn't work, and it 
won't work.

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