http://www.ijreview.com/2013/11/964...rats-obama-opposed-stripping-filibuster-2005/
Oh what a difference a decade makes...
Smash-cut to 2005:
Sen. Barack Obama [now President]: …”hasn’t gotten his way. And that is now prompting a, you know, change in the Senate rules that really, I think, would change the character of the Senate forever… Uhh, and, what I worry about would be you essentially have still two chambers — the House and the Senate — but you have simply majoritarian absolute power on either side, and that’s just not what the founders intended.”
Sen. Hillary Clinton: “So this president (George W. Bush) has come to the majority here in the Senate, and basically said, ‘change the rules.’ Do it the way I want it done. And I guess there weren’t that many voices on the other side of the aisle that acted the way previous generations of Senators have acted, and said, Mr. President, we’re with you, we support you, but that’s a bridge too far. We can’t go there. You have to restrain yourself, Mr. President. ” {Note: Mrs. Clinton is no longer in the Senate.]
Sen. Chuck Schumer: “We are on the precipice of a crisis, a Constitutional crisis. The checks and balances, which have been at the core of this Republic [finally, a Democrat who understands basic political philosophy - ed.], are about to be evaporated, by the nuclear option. The checks and balances say that if you get 51% of the vote, you don’t get your way 100% of the time. It is amazing, almost a temper tantrum…”
Sen. Joseph Biden [now, Vice President]: “This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power. It is a fundamental power-grab.”