Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I would like to continue the conversation that our two leaders were engaged in earlier and also on yesterday. This is going to be a very important issue for the Senate. To put it into perspective for the American people, let me just say that a rules change in the Senate is not a small or an inconsequential matter. It is even more important if it is attempted to be done without going through the normal process of changing the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority. This is important because the Senate has always considered itself a continuing body. It does not end and then begin again as the House of Representatives does because the House has an election every 2 years. In this body, Members are elected for 6-year terms. As a result, every 2 years we have some turnover in the body, but two-thirds of the body has already been here and continues forward. So the rules of the Senate have always been continuing rules of the continuing body, amendable by a two-thirds majority of the body. To suggest a nuclear option by which a mere majority of the body can amend the rules is itself a violation of the rules. It is an assertion of power. But as the old saying goes: Might does not make right. And the fact that the majority may have the power to overrule a ruling of the Chair, thus establishing a new precedent and a new rule of the Senate, does not make it right. That is why it hasn't been done.…”