Harry Reid: “the Senate is a body of process and a body of order. We have rules. These rules separate us from the House of…”

“the Senate is a body of process and a body of order. We have rules. These rules separate us from the House of Representatives. The Founding Fathers, visionary as they were, recognized that. That is why this Senate has worked so well, the Constitution. These rules separate us from the House of Representatives. The House is subject to partisan desires of the majority. We are not. For more than 200 years, through Democratic majorities and Republican majorities, the Senate has lived by these rules. But twice this year-- once this spring and now today--the Republican majority has shown us how far they are willing to go outside the rules to get what they want. The first attempt to flex their muscle, to show their power and change the Senate rules, was the so-called nuclear option. This was stopped when courageous Senators, Democrats and Republicans, from both sides of the aisle stood against it. We need to see this same bipartisan courage today. The majority is threatening to break the rules again--that is what this is all about-- but this time they are holding the U.S. military--yes, those men and women, as we stand here, are standing up in Iraq and Afghanistan--our military is being held hostage by this issue, Arctic drilling. Senator Stevens is violating rule XXVIII in order to pass ANWR. The Senator knows he lacks the votes to get this boon for special interests passed the right way, so he is willing to break the rules to jam it through.…”