Frist says Democrats want to kill, assasinate nominees even after judge whose husband
and mother were killed asked Senate to tone down rhetoric
Democrats jumped on U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum yesterday after the Pennsylvania Republican compared their defense
of filibustering judicial nominees to Adolf Hitler...
A few hours later, Santorum issued a statement calling his remarks "a mistake."
"Referencing Hitler was meant to dramatize the principle of an argument, not to characterize my Democratic
colleagues," he said.
"This is just another example of Senator Santorum taking things too far, destroying the comity of the Senate
and making it that much harder and poisoning the atmosphere," said Phil Singer, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee.
Republicans, including Santorum, had criticized Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., for comparing Republicans to
the Nazis. Santorum called for Byrd to retract his comments and said they "lessen the credibility of the senator and the decorum
of the Senate," The Associated Press reported in March.
Political analysts described Santorum's remarks as a devastating blunder because he is considered among
the GOP's most vulnerable incumbents.
"For someone who is now on the edge of losing his Senate seat, this is a very dumb thing to say," said University
of Virginia political expert Larry Sabato...
Santorum's comments came during debate over the rights of the minority party to block judicial nominations
by using the filibuster.
Republicans have been calling for "up or down votes" on all of President Bush's judicial nominees after
Democrats have blocked votes on 10 appeals court nominations.
Democrats, noting that 95 percent of Bush's nominees have been confirmed, have been unwilling to yield their
right to use the filibuster.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., inflamed Democrats Wednesday when he said Democrats want to
"kill, to defeat, to assassinate these nominees."
