Reid on ending the Filibuster

I was disappointed when Harry Reid was appointed Minority Leader, but the man has succeeded in changing my mind.

Speech of Harry Reid delivered on the steps of the U.S Capitol, March 15, 2005.

..Our Constitution provides for checks and balances so that no one person in power -- so that no one political party -- can hold total control over the course of our nation.

But now, in order to break down the separation of powers and ram through their appointees to the judicial branch, President Bush and the Republican leadership want to eliminate a two-hundred-year-old American rule saying that every member of the Senate can rise to say their piece and speak on behalf of the people that sent them here.

The fact is that this President has a better record of having his judicial nominees approved than any President in the past twenty-five years. Only ten of 214 nominations have been turned down.

So it is clear that this attempt to strip away these important checks and balances is not about judges. It is about the desire for absolute power.

But our nation's basic rules are there for the moments when the eyes of the powerful grow large and hungry; when their willfulness makes them determined to do whatever it takes to win, and prevail at whatever the cost...

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