Frank Lautenberg: “When he rose to encourage all of us to resist subverting existing Senate rules to bypass an important process which…”

“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.”