Power Line has been doing a excellent job exposing the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s forgetfulness about its flip-flopping on filbustering. Lots of amnesia going around:

“It is not the role of the Senate to obstruct the process and prevent numbers of highly qualified nominees from even being given the opportunity for a vote on the Senate floor.” Sen. Barbara Boxer, Congressional Record, May 14, 1997

“I find it simply baffling that a senator would vote against even voting on a judicial nomination.” Sen. Tom Daschle, Congressional Record, October 5, 1999

“Let’s bring their nominations up, debate them if necessary, and vote them up or down.” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Congressional Record, September 11, 1997

“I respectfully suggest that everyone who is nominated is entitled to have a shot, to have a hearing and to have a shot to be heard on the floor and have a vote on the floor. . . .It is not appropriate not to have hearings on them, not bring them to the floor and not to allow a vote.” Sen. Joe Biden, Congressional Record, March 19, 1997

“If, after 150 days languishing on the Executive Calendar that name has not been called for a vote, it should be. Vote the person up or down.” Sen. Dick Durbin, Congressional Record, September 28, 1998

“I do not believe that I as a member of the minority ought to have the right to absolutely stop something because I think it is wrong, that that is rule by minority.” Sen. Tom Harkin, Congressional Record, January 5, 1995

“The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court said: ‘Some current nominees have been waiting a considerable time for a Senate Judiciary Committee vote or a final floor vote … The Senate is surely under no obligation to confirm any particular nominee, but after the necessary time for inquiry, it should vote him up or vote him down.’ Which is exactly what I would like.” Sen. Pat Leahy, Congressional Record, March 7, 2000

“The U.S. Senate likes to call itself the world’s greatest deliberative body. The greatest obstructive body is more like it. In the last session of Congress, the Republican minority invoked an endless string of filibusters to frustrate the will of the majority. This relentless abuse of a time-honored Senate tradition so disgusted Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa, that he is now willing to forgo easy retribution and drastically limit the filibuster. Hooray for him.” New York Times editorial, “Time to Retire the Filibuster,” January 1, 1995

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