Democrats in the Senate invoked "nuclear option"

Posted by Kromey at 1:02pm Nov 22 '13
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So what do they have to say about it? It's rather damning, actually:

“The threat to change Senate rules is a raw abuse of power and will destroy the very checks and balances our founding fathers put in place to prevent absolute power by any one branch of government,” Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in 2005 in reference to Republican efforts to invoke the “nuclear option” to expedite the nomination of President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees.

Then-Sen. Barack Obama added in 2005: “I sense that talk of the nuclear option is more about power than about fairness … I believe some of my colleagues propose this rules change because they can get away with it rather than because they know it’s good for our democracy.

“The American people want less partisanship in this town, but everyone in this chamber knows that if the majority chooses to end the filibuster – if they choose to change the rules and put an end to democratic debate – then the fighting and the bitterness and the gridlock will only get worse,” the senator from Illinois added.

“You cannot change the Senate rules by a pure majority vote,” then-Sen. Biden said in 2005.

“Watch the vice president ignore – he’s not required to look to an unelected officer — but that has been the practice for 218 years,” Biden said, referring to Vice President Dick Cheney. “He will make the ruling, which is a lie. A lie about the rule.”

“This is what’s really going on here, the majority doesn’t want to hear what others have to say even if it’s the truth,” Biden continued. “The nuclear option abandons America’s sense of fair play.”

“I say to my friends on the Republican side, you may own the field right now, but you won’t own it forever,” Biden concluded. “I pray God, when the Democrats take back control, we don’t make the kind of naked power grab you are doing.”

So when Republicans merely consider the "nuclear option" against an "obstructionist" minority party, they're talking about a "naked power grab" -- but that's just fine and dandy for the Democrats to actually go all the way and pull the trigger against an "obstructionist" minority party, never mind that they themselves are the ones who condemned it in the first place!

Hypocrites and liars, all of them.