Washington, D.C. – “This Senate is not 62 to 38, or 70 to 30. This country is narrowly divided, and that means when laws are made, they move to the middle […] what’s new is the view on the other side that if they don’t get their whole way, they want to change the rules.”
That is quite the defense of the filibuster from Chuck Schumer – the Senate’s leading hypocrite – during a 2003 floor speech. Unsurprisingly, Schumer is the same guy who in 2005 said that those looking to abolish the filibuster “want to turn what the Founding Fathers called the ‘cooling saucer of Democracy’ into the rubber stamp of dictatorship.”
Despite his once fierce support for the filibuster, Chuck Schumer’s mission has changed dramatically. Now, Schumer’s mission is to abolish the filibuster in order to jam through a radical, Far-Left agenda that would completely transform America. Changing the rules “if they don’t get their whole way” is certainly the Democrats’ way.
Statement from NRSC Spokeswoman Katharine Cooksey: “It doesn’t matter anymore to Chuck Schumer that he is leading his own ‘narrowly divided’ 50-50 Senate. He is ready to destroy the filibuster, the Senate, and the nation just to appease the most extreme radicals in his party. When did Chuck Schumer decide changing the rules to get his way and turning the Senate into a ‘rubber stamp of dictatorship’ was a winning strategy for Democrats?”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is leading an effort in the Senate to peel back the filibuster after fiercely defending the 60-vote rule as a way to bring “balance” to the upper chamber.
Schumer in 2003 – when the Senate had a very narrow GOP majority – gave a spirited defense of Democrats using the filibuster on President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees. He made the case that since Bush didn’t win in a landslide, the actions of the Senate should reflect the ideological middle of the country.
“The bottom line is this. We are defending the Constitution, we are saying there should be some balance,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a 2003 floor speech. “President Bush didn’t win by a landslide. This Senate is not 62 to 38, or 70 to 30. This country is narrowly divided, and that means when laws are made they move to the middle.”
He criticized the Republicans for trying to bend the rules to get the result they want. Schumer said the minority party’s role in filibustering is nothing new, but “what’s new is the view on the other side that if they don’t get their whole way they want to change the rules.”
His comments came as Senate Republicans were frustrated with Democrats for filibustering Bush’s judicial nominees.
“What my colleagues have done is taken the result they want … and then come up with an argument that all of a sudden filibusters are bad,” Schumer said.
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