WASHINGTON – 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.

Byrd compared the idea to Hitler's abuse of power.

"Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality. He recognized the enormous psychological value of having the law on his side," he said.