Dennis the menace

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Nov. 3rd, 2004:

I pledge to work with those Democrats who want to work with me to get good things done for the American people.

Washington Post Nov. 27, 2004:

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.

That didn't take long for him, did it? I have a feeling they would make this an actual House rule if they thought they could get away with it.

So the call for bipartisanship last 24 days. I'm impressed it made it that long.

There are 231 Republican representatives in the House, meaning that unless 116 of them agree on something, Hastert will not let a bill come to the floor (I assume that means that Kerry's health care plan will die quickly if it clears the Senate). That would mean if there was a bill that all Democrats agreed on, they would need 316 votes to get it to the floor for debate, almost 100 more than they would need to pass it were the Republicans and Hastert not drunk with power.

Republicans must think that they will never lose their majority in the House, and it is that kind of thinking that will eventually lead to their downfall. It's not about democracy anymore, folks. It's about imposing the Republican agenda on us all.

There's little hope at this point that Democrats are going to be able to change or influence the direction of this country for the next two years. Anything that goes wrong is now clearly the fault of the Republicans. And Democrats need to make sure that every one knows it.

We would hear non stop on news networks if the Democrats were in power and proposed something like this, and I hope the DNC is drinking honey tea to warm up their and begin shouting from the hills on Monday.

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I miss the days of Newt.