Prayer

PRAYER

Mr. DAYTON. I thank the Chair.

Mr. President, it is now 4:30. At 4:15, the Central Intelligence Agency began a classified briefing of all Senators on a just completed report on the worsening conditions in Iraq, a report that, according to the news accounts that were published yesterday and today about it, was reportedly leaked by a very high level Bush administration official so that it could not be hidden from the American people and from us in Congress.

When I became aware of this-and we were only informed of this briefing this morning-I asked Senator Daschle and Senator Reid to see if we could suspend our talking and talking and talking about all of this for 1 hour to go listen to what is happening to the 130,000 courageous Americans whose lives are on the line in Iraq and to learn what we might be able to do, or must do, to support and aid them.

Senator Daschle and Senator Reid inquired, could our colleagues across the aisle either give up 1 of the 30 hours that we are talking and talking about the jobs of four Americans and devote that time to protecting the lives and protecting the safety of 130,000 Americans and to preserving their heroic success that they achieved last spring in Iraq, which was for some of them their heroic sacrifice on our behalf, and which the CIA assessment reportedly has concluded is now in real jeopardy. Or even if that was not satisfactory, could that hour be added on to the scheduled conclusion for this blame-athon, keep the 30 hours as planned even though it is clear to this Senator, having participated between 12 and 1 this morning and listened to others throughout the early hours and now up until this time, that 30 hours for this topic is excessive and that our speeches are becoming increasingly repetitive, but just pause for 1 hour so that all of the Senators could attend that briefing on behalf of their constituents who are over in that precarious situation.

The answer was no. I thought that when this blame-athon began, it showed fellow caucus members on the other side of the aisle with mistaken priorities, but this has convinced me that it is much more serious than that. Winston Churchill once described a fanatic as somebody who cannot change his mind and will not change the subject. This fixation today fits that description.

We had a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing scheduled this morning, the committee on which I serve, with the Acting Secretary of the Army and other high-level Army officials testifying. We just received a briefing from them, reports of the timetables they have for deployments in and out of Iraq. We have seen reports of other news sources that within a few months the intention is to increase significantly in Iraq the number of reservists and National Guard men and women, which has a lot more importance to a lot more people who live in my State of Minnesota, whose loved ones are either over there now or are training to go over there soon or will be called up to go over later, than any judicial appointment. That hearing was cancelled.

The House of Representatives is taking this whole week off. They are waiting for us to catch up on passed appropriations bills for a fiscal year that started on October 1. Yesterday, we suspended action on the VA-HUD appropriations measure, set it aside for this period of time to talk and talk on the same well-beaten, thoroughly debated, and genuinely disagreed-upon difference of our respective opinions, which is somehow so important to some of us that everything and everyone else must simply wait.

The House Members are being paid by the American taxpayers to not even be in town this week because they are waiting for us to catch up. We are spending our time and American taxpayers' dollars to say the same things over and over and over and over again.

UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST

I ask unanimous consent that the Secretary of the Senate be instructed to deduct the pay of all Senators for 15 hours, which is half the time that we are engaged in this excessive pursuit, and that should be our time, and for indulging in our priorities and playing to our audiences and doing whatever else this is supposed to be about but it is not serving the interests of the people of America any longer and I believe we should face up to that and recognize that.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?

Mr. LOTT. I object.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.

Mr. DAYTON. I would point out we are not going to vote until tomorrow. We are going to vote tomorrow on a couple of these matters, on a couple of these nominees. According to our own Senate rules and procedures, we are not able to vote until then. Contrary to what some people watching this show might deduce from comments that have been made in the last few minutes, and before me and in the hours preceding, we actually do follow our rules and procedures in this body. We have 216 years' established rules and procedures, and if any 1 of the 100 Senators who doubts that those rules and procedures are being properly followed or disagrees with the action, we have a remedy for that. We have a referee, we have a head umpire and impartial ruler on our rules, who is the Senate Parliamentarian. He or she, as the case may be, at the moment can be asked by any one of us to rule on any action, any tactic, any maneuver being employed by any Member of the Senate or any group of the Senate.

Yet for all the accusations for the last number of hours that we are violating somehow the rules, the procedures, the traditions, the Constitution, the intent of the Founding Fathers and just about everything else anybody has conjured up to justify their own point of view, we could ask. No one has asked. I am told that as of yesterday no one had asked the Parliamentarian, and I believe the reason is likely that the colleagues on the other side know that the answer would be clearly and unequivocally that we are following the practices and the traditions long established over 216 years by which this body conducts its matters, its business on behalf of the people of the United States of America.

We can have legitimate differences of opinion about whether that is a good set of rules, one that serves us and serves us in one situation or does not serve us, but they are there. I have learned this in my 3 years here, to my own proper humility, that there is a real collective wisdom that has been established with almost 1,900 men and women serving over the course of those 216 years and that while I may still not agree with some of the particulars, there is a way in which this country has been better served in the eyes of many people more learned than I about government and legislative procedure, has been better served by this body than any other legislative body in the history of the world anywhere on this planet.

Two generations ago, Gladstone called the Senate of the United States "that remarkable body, the most remarkable of all the inventions of modern politics."

James Madison, one of the authors of the document which we swear to uphold when we take this oath of office, the Constitution of the United States, said at the time:

In order to judge of the form to be given to this institution [the Senate], it will be proper to take a view of the ends to be served by it. These were,-first, to protect the people against their rulers, secondly to protect the people against the transient impressions into which they themselves might be led.

I appreciated the words of the distinguished Senator from Mississippi just now because he was kind and gracious enough, and correct enough, to disagree with the application of these rules and procedures. But not as some have done, casting aspersions on following the rules and procedures, but beyond that, following our responsibilities and proscriptions under the Constitution of the United States, which I consider to be about the most serious accusation that any Member could direct toward anyone else.

As I said earlier, we have taken an oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the United States. That is the most solemn oath I have ever taken in my life. I expect every other Member of this body who has taken that oath is as sincerely and dedicated to that oath as I. To different people it may mean different things. But I never imagined questioning any Member's commitment. If there were reason to doubt or question, the proper way to direct that is through courts of this country, because it is a constitutional matter of the gravest import.

I urge everyone who has engaged in this constitutional practice these many hours to weigh those words far more carefully than some are doing. As I am on the Senate Rules Committee, I appreciate the approach the chairman of that committee suggested or implied in looking at these matters and, through a proper forum, if it be the desire, to consider them in a learned way, to bring in constitutional scholars who can give us a variety of opinions, impartial, nonpartial opinions about the Constitution and case law.

Then we can have an opportunity to consider whether what is established as a long-standing tradition and practice, whereby 41 Members of this body can prevent the other 59 from proceeding on something that would be passed by majority vote. I could argue the merits or demerits of that position over a particular matter, but I certainly would not question any Member's proper use of that just because I did not happen to like its application.

There were 69 of those measures taken in the last two years when we were in the majority; 69 times Senator Daschle had to move to proceed and file cloture when he was majority leader to consider bills and amendments, to go to final passage of legislation that affected health care for senior citizens, veterans benefits, environmental protection, matters that had far more consequence to many more Americans than any single judicial appointment to a Federal court.

I respect and appreciate the chairman of the Rules Committee and his thought on that matter. I welcome the chance to participate in that. I believe that is the responsible forum to review these matters and, if deemed necessary or desired on the part of those to consider it, to recognize we have the right and responsibility.

We have been elected independently by the men and women of our own States to do this job as each of us sees best, and I am willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt who is doing so. That is our responsibility. That is our right.

I yield the floor.