I have long thought that the Republicans were creating new rules and redistricting themselves into power permanently, the evidence is all around us. Now, there’s some pretty obvious evidence of what they’re doing:
In scuttling major intelligence legislation that he, the president and most lawmakers supported, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert last week enunciated a policy in which Congress will pass bills only if most House Republicans back them, regardless of how many Democrats favor them.
Hastert’s position, which is drawing fire from Democrats and some outside groups, is the latest step in a decade-long process of limiting Democrats’ influence and running the House virtually as a one-party institution. Republicans earlier barred House Democrats from helping to draft major bills such as the 2003 Medicare revision and this year’s intelligence package. Hastert (R-Ill.) now says such bills will reach the House floor, after negotiations with the Senate, only if “the majority of the majority” supports them.
… Hastert put his principle into practice one week ago today. In a closed meeting in the Capitol basement, he urged his GOP colleagues to back the intelligence bill that had emerged from long House-Senate negotiations and had President Bush’s support. When a surprising number refused, Hastert elected to keep it from reaching a vote, even though his aides said it could have passed with a minority of GOP members and strong support from the chamber’s 206 Democrats.
Our government no longer works; the conservatives have seen to that. The congressional process has been so perverted — by both sides — that bills are no longer read or debated (see the “look at tax returns” debacle of last week) and only those bills that serve the conservative agenda are even considered.
Government by the people, for the people? I don’t think so. Not any more.
Time for a revolution.
