WP: Government by Juggernaut (Even the Post is outraged)

[Snellius]

THE HOUSE REPUBLICANS' manipulation of the Medicare vote was characteristic of the bullying, win-by-any-means style that has become the congressional norm. More than at any time during their nine years in control, congressional Republicans have been unabashed in their exercise of raw political power. However poisonous relations between the parties were heading into the 108th Congress, this session has witnessed levels of partisanship unhealthy not only for both sides but for the people they're supposed to represent.

Hardball isn't new to politics; Democrats happily employed the rules to their advantage when they held power, and, in the Senate, where the minority has greater protections, they still do. Republicans once clamored for fair treatment and railed against their subjugation at Democratic hands. But their use of the rules to impose their will is making the Democrats look benevolent by comparison. "The Republicans had better hope that the Democrats never regain the majority," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the day after the House Medicare vote.
...
Rank-and-file lawmakers of both parties are often unable to see legislation until the vote is upon them -- not just because details are still being hammered out, but because exposing the document to public scrutiny would hurt the cause of those who seek to have it passed by any means. Both houses have rules designed to prevent this sort of governing by ambush. But these are routinely swept aside in the interest of swift passage, however uninformed. Contempt for the minority extends to the White House, which sought recently to require that Democrats obtain the approval of Republican committee chairs before submitting questions to the administration.
...
In 1987, when then-House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) employed a pale version of this practice -- keeping the vote open an extra 15 minutes -- Republicans denounced this as an outrageous departure from regular order. Then-Rep. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) railed against "Jim Wright and his goons." And a Republican congressman named Dick Cheney denounced the move as "the most arrogant, heavy-handed abuse of power I've ever seen in the 10 years that I've been here." Funny, but Vice President Cheney doesn't seem nearly so outraged now.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14896-2003Nov25.html

[wryter2000]

1. Whoa!

Are the media finding some spine now, too?

[blindpig]

2. John McCain is right

when its our turn we should grind those bastards into the dirt

[hatrack]

3. Well cry me a frickin' river, Washington Compost!

Ah! The light begins to dawn! The lightbulbs begin to glow, however dimly! "We were deceived", whines the Post!

The bill just came due for your shameless media whoring, and we all get to pay the price. This has apparently just dawned on your editorial board, now wringing its hands and lamenting the nature of the regime you tirelessly defend.

Thanks for nothing, you witless lickspittle ass-kissers! Now, how about a hot mug of STFU, and resuming your new role as Bush apologists?

[Snellius]

4. So right. The Post still wants to limit their outrage to congress

This cynical, win-at-any-cost fascism is not just Tom DeLay or Bill Thomas. It was obvious in Florida, when the Post was trying to rationalize it away. It was obvious during the California blackouts and with every other dishonest and corrupt boondoggle the Bush administration has touched. It's so pervasively corrupt, it doesn't even look like corruption anymore. It's not DeLay or Thomas. It's not even Rove and Cheney and Baker and Ashcroft. It's Bush.

[hatrack]

5. Did you see the movie "The Insider"?

At the end of the film, Lowell Bergman (played by Al Pacino) leaves CBS News after the company rolls over to have its tummy rubbed by Big Tobacco, even though the original story eventually runs.

When Mike Wallace asks him to stay, he answers "What got broken here doesn't go back together."

Kind of feels that way on Capitol Hill these days, too.