posted May 20, 2005 08:29 PM              

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Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., angered some Democrats with his comments on the Senate floor.

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WASHINGTON (May 20) - A Republican senator who likened Democrats to Adolf Hitler during a heated debate over the future of U.S. judicial nominees on Friday said such language was a ''mistake.''

Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania released a statement saying that ''Referencing Hitler was meant to dramatize the principle of an argument, not to characterize my Democratic colleagues.''

''It was a mistake and I meant no offense,'' added Santorum, who holds a key spot in the Republican leadership.

Barring a negotiated settlement before Tuesday, Senate Republicans are moving toward stripping Democrats of using filibusters, their most effective procedural weapon in slowing or defeating some of President Bush's nominees to federal courts.

Santorum attacked Democrats on Thursday for saying Republicans would break Senate rules if they banned filibusters in Senate confirmation debates of judges nominated by Bush.

''The audacity of some members to stand up and say, 'How dare you break this rule,''' Santorum said in Thursday's Senate speech. ''It's the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 declaring,'' '''I'm in Paris. How dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city. It's mine.''

A bipartisan group of senators hoping to end the dispute over judicial nominations were planning to work over the weekend on possible compromises.

Without a deal, the Senate could vote as early as Tuesday on a Republican initiative outlawing filibusters on judicial nominations. Using the filibuster, Democrats have blocked votes on several Bush appointees they consider unsuitable for the federal judiciary.

Santorum used the statement to take another swipe at Democrats, however, saying they have ''violated the long-standing principle of majority rule on nominations and are now accusing us of behaving unlawfully when we are attempting to defend that principle.''

Reuter 16:26 05-20-05

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Yeah I mean who's he to talk? After all Bush's family did fund the nazis.

posted May 20, 2005 10:07 PM            

Byrd compares Republicans to Hitler
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Wednesday, March 2, 2005

Byrd compares Republicans to Hitler
Former Klansman decries attempts to approve judicial nominees

In denouncing Republican efforts to get President Bush's judicial nominees to the floor of the Senate for an up-or-down vote, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., compared Republican tactics to Adolph Hitler's use of power in Nazi Germany. Byrd, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, said that if the GOP were to succeed in preventing Democratic filibusters of Bush's nominees, the move would "incinerate" the rights of all senators.

As many as 10 of Bush's nominees face the threat of filibuster, including William Myers, former lead counsel at the Interior Department who is up for a seat on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Myers has majority support in the Senate, but lacks the 60 votes needed to shatter a filibuster. To get past that barrier, Republicans would like to use their majority power to change the rules.