Political Quotes

“Mr. President, in the past, a few Senate majorities, frustrated by their inability to get certain bills and nominations to a vote, have threatened to ignore the rules and change them by fiat, and to change rules to a majority vote change. Rule XXII of the Senate requires two-thirds of the Senate to amend our rules. A new precedent has now been set, which is that a majority can change our rules. Because that step would change this Senate into a legislative body where the majority can, whenever it wishes, change the rules, it has been dubbed the nuclear option. Arguments about the nuclear option are not new. Senator Arthur Vandenberg confronted the same question in 1949. Senator Vandenberg, who was a giant of the Senate and one of my predecessors from Michigan, said if the majority can change the rules at will, ``there are no rules except the transient, unregulated wishes of a majority of whatever quorum is temporarily in control of the Senate.'' When Senator Vandenberg took that position, he was arguing against changing the rules by fiat, although he favored the rule change that was being considered. Overruling the ruling of the Chair, as we have now done, by a simple majority is not a one-time action. If a Senate majority demonstrates it can make such a change once, there are no rules which bind a majority, and all future majorities will feel free to exercise the same power-- not just on judges and executive appointments but on legislation.…”