{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=f7c7ab9d-ee42-4901-bb02-8bdc58255068", "Alexander: Democrats Breaking Senate Rules Is \u201cObamacare II,\u201d Another \u201cRaw Exercise of Partisan Political Power\u201d", "2013-11-21", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Lamar Alexander", "A000360", "www.alexander.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Says \u201cnuclear option\u201d would make the Senate a place where \u201cthe home team can cheat to win the game\u201d\r\n***\r\n\u201cThe president said during the government shutdown that he wasn\u2019t going to negotiate with a gun to his head \u2013 neither will I. The Democrats have had their finger on the nuclear button for two years. I hope they will reconsider.\u201d \u2013 Lamar Alexander\u00a0\r\nWASHINGTON, Nov. 21 \u2013 In a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate yesterday, U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said the Senate Democratic majority\u2019s plan to get rid of the filibuster for presidential nominations \u2013 which the Senate majority accomplished today, by a vote of 52-48 \u2013 would be another \u201craw exercise of partisan political power\u201d equivalent to the partisan passage of Obamacare. He also said he will no longer negotiate over such threats, and noted that Democrats have taken the Republican position both on the D.C. Circuit and the filibuster in the past. (Click HERE to see video of Alexander\u2019s speech.)\r\n\u201cThis is my third opportunity to respond to these nuclear threats, and I\u2019m not going to do it again. The president said during the government shutdown that he wasn't going to negotiate with a gun to his head \u2013 neither will I. The Democrats have had their finger on the nuclear button for two years. I hope they will reconsider,\u201d Alexander said. \u201cIf the Democrats proceed to use the nuclear option in this way, it will be Obamacare II: It will be another raw exercise of partisan political power to say we can do whatever we want to do.\u201d\r\nIf Senate Democrats break the Senate\u2019s rules so that they only need a simple majority \u2013 as opposed to 60 votes under a filibuster \u2013 on presidential nominations, Alexander said, it would prove what Senator Carl Levin, D-Mich., recently said in quoting his Michigan predecessor, former Republican Senator Arthur Vandenberg. Vandenberg said, \u201cIf a majority of the Senate can change its rules at any time, there are no rules.\u201d\r\nAlexander continued: \u201cLet\u2019s say Vanderbilt\u2019s football team gets on the one-yard line of Tennessee, and Tennessee then says \u2018Well, we\u2019re the home team, let\u2019s add 20 yards or whatever it takes to win the game.\u2019 Or let\u2019s say in the World Series recently, the Red Sox were behind St. Louis in the ninth inning and the Red Sox said, \u2018Well, we\u2019re the home team, let\u2019s add a couple of innings or whatever it takes to win the game. Everyone would say \u2018You\u2019re destroying the game\u2019 of football or baseball. \u2026 I hope we will resist turning the Senate into an institution where the home team can cheat to win the game to get whatever result it wants at any time it wants.\u201d\r\nAlexander gave these additional reasons he hopes the Democrats will reconsider:\r\n\u00a0\r\n \r\n\u00a0\u00a0 Democrats previously supported reducing the number of judgeships on the D.C. Circuit: In 2006, Senate Democrats, including Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) joined in calling for a reduction in the number of judges on the D.C. Circuit, Alexander said. Ultimately the Senate and President George W. Bush opted to lessen the number of judges on the D.C. Circuit by one seat, moving it to the Ninth Circuit.\u00a0\r\n \r\nAlexander said it would be premature to have an up or down vote on the presidents\u2019 nominees to the D.C. Circuit until the Senate considers a proposal he has cosponsored with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to remove one judgeship and move two others to the Second and Eleventh Circuits. Alexander has said, \u201cI\u2019ll not vote to end the debate on the president\u2019s nominees until the Senate does in 2013 what Democratic senators suggested and the Senate did in 2007: move judges from where they are not needed to where they are needed most.\u201d\r\n\r\n \r\nPresident Obama\u2019s nominees have received the same or better treatment than his predecessors: According to the Senate historian, Alexander said, President Obama\u2019s cabinet nominees so far in his second term have been confirmed at about the same pace as President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton. Senate Democrats in the majority also control whether nominees are reported to the floor of the Senate, Alexander said, and there is no backlog.\r\n \r\n\r\nRepublicans are also following a precedent Democrats set, Alexander said, when they filibustered circuit court judges under President Bush. In the history of the Senate, no nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court, federal district court or the president\u2019s cabinet have been denied their seat by filibuster.\u00a0\r\nAlexander said Democratic Leader Harry Reid has previously warned against getting rid of the filibuster for presidential nominations, because it would lead to getting rid of it for legislation and be \u201cthe end of the United States Senate.\u201d The Senate, Alexander said, is supposed to guard against the \u201ctyranny of the majority,\u201d as historian Alexis de Tocqueville put it, by forcing the majority in the Senate and the president to work with the minority toward a consensus.\r\n\u00a0\r\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=f7c7ab9d-ee42-4901-bb02-8bdc58255068"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6805052291601896, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}