It's often that I think of this article, particularly when Publicans frequently remind us what a lofty ideal they think bipartisanship is. People just don't know how far the Worst Congress Ever has gone. From the same article:
"I remember one incident very clearly -- I think it was 2001," says Winslow Wheeler, who served for twenty-two years as a Republican staffer in the Senate. "I was working for
Pete Domenici at the time. We were in a Budget Committee hearing and the Democrats were debating what the final result would be. And my boss gets up and he says, 'Why are you saying this? You're not even going to be in the room when the decisions are made.' Just said it right out in the open."
<snip>
When bills do make it to the floor for a vote, the debate generally resembles what one House aide calls "preordained Kabuki." Republican leaders in the Bush era have mastered a new congressional innovation: the one-vote victory. Rather than seeking broad consensus, the leadership cooks up some hideously expensive, favor-laden boondoggle and then scales it back bit by bit. Once they're in striking range, they send the fucker to the floor and beat in the brains of the fence-sitters with threats and favors until enough members cave in and pass the damn thing. It is, in essence, a legislative microcosm of the electoral strategy that Karl Rove has employed to such devastating effect.
A classic example was the vote for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the union-smashing, free-trade monstrosity passed in 2005. As has often been the case in the past six years, the vote was held late at night, away from the prying eyes of the public, who might be horrified by what they see. Thanks to such tactics, the 109th is known as the "Dracula" Congress: Twenty bills have been brought to a vote between midnight and 7 a.m.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12055360/cover_story_time_to_go_inside_the_worst_congress_ever/1A lot of folks think we should now make nice with the Publicans, but shouldn't we use their rules and tactics against them now to try to undo some of the damage they've done? I mean, turning the other cheek is virtuous but at what point is is just stupid? Publicans want everything to turn all bipartisany now, hoping they won't lose ground they have gained in dragging our nation even further to the right. But shouldn't we press our advantage?
On the other hand, lots of Congressional Publicans are filing for unemployment benefits right now because voters grew weary of them and their behavior. Should we take the moral high ground and resist the temptation to enact revenge? After all, we don't want to stoop to their level do we?
I kind of lean toward the high ground but I think we should use whatever advantage we now have to ensure everyone learns and remembers what an enormous mistake it was to ever let these people get control of our Legislative and Executive branches.
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