E.J. Dionne on how the Dems got rolled on Medicare

[lancdem]

The battle over a Medicare prescription drug benefit proves that Republicans are ruthless and determined and that Democrats are divided and hapless. Republicans have changed the rules in Washington, but some Democrats still pretend to be living in the good old days.
And so there was much bitterness among Democrats as the Republicans' Medicare drug bulldozer rolled inexorably forward with critical help from two Democratic senators. A majority of Democrats believe the bill was a bad deal -- it gave President Bush a political victory without demanding enough in return. "It's a combination of political stupidity and substantive gutlessness," said one influential Democratic congressional aide.
What Democrats failed to understand, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said in an interview yesterday morning, is that Republicans "are on an ideological march. They have no intention of playing fair. They want what they want when they want it." And they get it.
If anyone doubted the rules had changed, House Republican leaders ended all illusions in the early hours of Saturday morning by holding open a 15-minute roll call vote for an unprecedented two hours and 51 minutes. At the end of the normal time for voting, Republican leaders faced defeat on the drug bill by a two-vote margin. Eventually, two Republicans were hammered into switching their votes.
"I don't mean to be alarmist, but this is the end of parliamentary democracy as we have known it," said Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts. The new system amounted to "plebiscitary democracy" in which leaders of the House have imposed such a strong sense of party discipline that they will ultimately pass whatever legislation they bring to the floor. "The Republican Party in the House is the most ideologically cohesive and disciplined party in the democratic world," Frank said.
Edward M. Kennedy was one senator who believed the old system could still work. He had urged his colleagues to pass an earlier version of the drug bill on the assumption that Republicans would agree to a compromise acceptable to Democrats.
While Clinton and Frank admire Kennedy, both think he "made a mistake," as Frank put it, in thinking a real compromise would emerge from the current system. "I think we started down this slope in June," Clinton said, referring to the vote on the earlier bill, which she opposed and Kennedy favored. Clinton had predicted that the already inadequate drug benefit in that bill would be weakened by Republicans in subsequent negotiations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12109-2003Nov24.html

This column is so depressing because it's so accurate.

[jeter]

1. I think people would be outraged by this if they knew about it

That's the key. No one talks about this. This is the first I have heard about the 3 hour roll call. The GOP are playing by their own rules. It doesn't matter who gets hurt. But no one hears about this. No one talks about privatizing Medicare. No one is talking about it.

Why not? Why don't Democrats talk about this?

[joeybee12]

2. Yup, the Repukes are making the rules up as they go along

They're bullies, and when a bully punches you, you punch him back. That's all they understand, and until the Dems realize this, they will be the minority party, and quite possibly become even more marginalized than they are.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Good read

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